Rise of the Sun Queen
by argentorum
Summary: Gotta tell you, this was the last thing I expected after we made it back from Yamatai. But hey, I can deal, I always wanted superpowers when I was a kid after all.[Rated T because Sam and Lara swear]
1. Dawn

**Rise of the Sun Queen**

 **Dawn**

 **1.1**

I wonder what he thought, the captain of the cargo ship that is, when we all climbed aboard.

I'm actually surprised the guy hadn't mistaken us for pirates or something. I certainly saw how his eyes widened as Lara pulled herself onto the deck, looking like she was ready to fight a war. And let me tell you, I was pretty out of it.

Unsurprising I guess. My thoughts have been all scrambled since the mountain…

But, in happier news, Lara saved my camera! I wasn't even going to ask about it, but she gave it to me as soon as we were settled in on the ship, said watching the videos I took is what kept her going on Yamatai. It's nice to know that I had been at least a little bit helpful… instead of just a useless damsel in distress.

So anyway, later that night, I was lying on my bunk, trying to fall asleep, but my thoughts kept drifting back to the ziggurat. The snow, the guards, and… and fucking Himiko.

When Lara had rescued me, the first thing I asked was: "What's going on?"

I had been so confused for a second. It had taken everything that I was to remember her name. Instead, I was stuck reliving other things, a lifetime's worth of memories that had all pressed against the edges of my mind.

But then Lara had been there, and I was myself again.

And even though I knew we were safe, on a ship en route to Japan, my thoughts kept returning to those moments, no matter how much I tried to think of other things. Cute guys? Solari. My camera? The endurance. Lara? Fucking everything.

I snorted. That last one was pretty funny out of context. Though instead of sexing her way across the island, which would really have been slumming for a girl of Lara's caliber, she'd started adding a whole different set of notches to her belt…

And there I went again, dammit.

After another twenty minutes of useless tossing and turning, I finally kissed the tattered remnants of my beauty sleep goodbye and stumbled out of my small cabin. I looked across the hall to the one I knew Lara was sleeping in for reassurance, and then started making my way down the passageway.

The Cap'n probably want me wandering around the ship, so I found the nearest staircase and made my way up to the deck instead.

Back on the Endurance I liked to lounge around on the deck. The tropical sunlight felt nice, made me feel like a big jungle cat as I planned out the next filler episode or something like that. I hoped that the familiarity would help me calm down.

But then I opened the door and I heard the wind whistling through the cargo containers that filled the deck.

I froze, halfway out of the hatch. I strongly contemplated going back inside, and turning towards the world's best sleep medicine: copious amounts of alcohol. Then I stepped forward, closing the door firmly behind me.

I shivered as the breezed plucked at my jacket. Then a huge gust of wind knocked me off balance, jerking me awkwardly to the side

I glared.

God, how fucking impudent, am I right? The wind just thinking it can push me around like that? I couldn't even relax with the air all tossing about like a bunch of drunk frat boys going at it!

I huffed. "Be Still." I said. And it was so.

I let out a sigh of relief as the wind quieted. Now I could finally – wait.

I staggered.

Had I just?

No. There's just no way. I mean, get a grip, Sam, the wind must have stopped blowing naturally. I mean, believing that I had caused it, just because I'd almost been possessed by a Japanese mummy with weather controlling abilities is childish and naïve, right?

Not to mention, actually definitely to mention, that I was Sam Nishimura, and that the attempted possession was very much not a successful possession, and Samantha N. can't control the weather! That would be crazy.

I wasn't Himiko. I wasn't! I was me damn it!

Wrapping my arms around myself. I sank down to the cold metal of the deck. I felt it pressing uncomfortably against my knees. Mine, and nobody else's.

"My name is Sam Nishimura." I whispered. "My name is Sam Nishimura. My name is Sam Nishimura."

The wind around me started to pick up again, and I flinched.

"No!"

And it quieted.

I sobbed. Once. I swear I'm not usually this quick to tears.

Just- just get it together, Sam! Okay? Calm down, calm. Deep breaths. Focus, just like Lara always said to when I needed to finish a project or study for a test. Focus.

What would Lara do?

I suddenly remembered how Lara had stabbed Himiko with a flaming stake, driving it brutally into the queen's ribs to interrupt the ritual.

Normally, that would have calmed me down some. Zombie face was dead. Lara had killed her. I remembered it.

Except that I kinda sorta remembered it like I was the one being stabbed in the chest.

What had it felt like right after Lara had ended the ritual? A lifetime of memories…

Slowly I staggered back to my feet, forcing myself to be logical about this. Well, as logical as I could be when an ancient magical body-snatching queen was involved. I giggled hysterically at the thought.

Hopefully that was a good sign? Okay, okay, serious time.

Given that I wasn't doing my best reenactment of 'The Exorcism' right now, Lara had to have disrupted the ritual right?

I didn't have the urge to build a structurally unstable palace at the top of the highest sky scrapper in Tokyo, or sacrifice my children in some bizarre life extending sacrament. What I did have was an overwhelming desire for a three day long spa retreat, and a new pair of shoes.

It was just like that Descartes guy said: I think, therefore I'm Sam.

As for the rest… should I test it? Did I want to?

Okay, all the baggage they came with aside, weather controlling powers would be pretty cool right? And really, was it all that bad if I got something other than a sprained ankle and a new appreciation for my bestie from Yamatai? I didn't think so.

I looked up. Just... a quick test I decided. Slowly I raised my hands up over my head, palms facing the sky, and the wind began to blow again.

I let the air unravel around me, laughing breathlessly as it ruffled my hair and tugged at my clothes like an overeager puppy. I admit, I played with it, always wanted a dog as a kid, not that Daddy would have ever gone for it.

I let the wind spool out only to pull it back again, I tossed my jacket into the sky and had the wind fetch it back, hell I even practiced the windblown hairstyle until I had it down to an art. Easy, breezy, beautiful. Not that I would ever spring for their products, but hey, with my new skills I'd be a shoe in for a model if I ever got tired of living off Daddy's credit cards.

I felt… lighter, as I released my hold on the wind, letting it return to normal. Lighter and happier than I'd felt since we were shipwrecked on Yamatai. The weight of it all was still there, lingering in the background, and as a film major I knew enough about the stages of grief to know that I wasn't 'better' yet. But for now, I felt calm, almost happy.

All I had to do was keep myself distracted like this until we made it back to civilization. And then I could break down within the safe confines of a hospital, with a dozen nurses (hopefully hunky male ones) waiting on me hand and foot along with enough antibiotics to kill anything I'd picked up from my time with the fucking Solari.

I was just starting to theorize how to ensure I ended up in the same room as Laura when I yawned. Oh god, I think I felt my jaw creak like Lara's bow.

Sleep sounded really wonderful right about now. Who new magic was such a great insomnia killer?

Dedicatedly holding onto my good mood, I opened the ship's hatch and made my way back below decks. Finding my way back to my cabin, I wasted no time tossing myself onto the bed. Now that my whole anxiety mess was sorted out, I could finally catch some well-deserved sleep.

Hopefully without that creep Whitman abducting me this time around.

"Sam."

"Gah!" I bolted upright, hands clutching at my chest. "L-Lara?" I reached out blindly, groping for something, either my friend's hand or the light switch, I don't know.

"Here, let me." Lara said. Yep, definitely Lara. I'd know that sexy British accent anywhere.

She flicked on the lights and I winced, squinting for a moment before my eyesight adjusted. Looking around, I was treated to the sight of Lara leaning comfortably against the wall.

"Went for a walk?" She asked slowly.

I nodded. "Uh, yeah. Couldn't sleep." I said. "Went up to the deck to blow off some steam. You?"

After a moment, Lara shrugged, head lolling as she looked around the room. She hummed vaguely.

I got out of bed. "Sweetie?" I asked, moving closer to my friend. "Are you okay?" When she didn't say anything I started to get a little worried. Had she followed me onto the deck or something? That could get so bad.

"You weren't here." Lara said suddenly. "I had this dream that you were gone so I came looking and you weren't here."

I tilted my head to the side. "Yeah, I went for a little walk. But I'm here now, so it's okay right?"

Lara shook her head emphatically. "No! You can't… you can't go wandering off like that. The brothers might capture you!"

"Brothers?" What, did she mean the Solari or something? They did have this awkward habit of calling each other 'brother' all the time, like they were some fucked up extended family. But more importantly, "Lara, sweetie, are you okay?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We're not on Yamatai anymore, no one's going trying to capture me."

Lara looked at me for a moment, those dark eyes wide. With a choked laugh she stumbled away from the door, brushing off my hand. Spinning around she put her back to the far wall, an unreadable expression on her face.

"No one leaves." I heard her whisper, hand clenched in a white knuckle grip on the handle of Roth's gun. "Get away from the door Sam." She told me. "No one leaves."

Then her eyes rolled back into her skull, and she collapsed.

"Lara!" I moved forward, sliding to the ground right next to her. "Lara, wake up!"

And then, when she refused to be roused, I did just what I always did in times like these. I called for help. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I wasn't able to do anything more.

After all, it took Yamatai for me to realize how much I hated being helpless.

 **1.2**

" _And I don't think_ you _understand."_ I said in Japanese, glaring at the doctor. _"I'm only entrusting her life to you because I lack any other recourse. If you think I'm letting my friend out of my sight for anything short of surgery, then you are sorely mistaken."_

The man flinched lightly, before rallying. _"Be that as it may, Miss Nishimura, you need to be treated for your own injuries and-"_

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. Pulling back the curtains around the empty bed nearest to Lara's, I sat down on it, spreading my arms in a 'go ahead' gesture. _"Then treat me right here_. _"_ I told him.

The doctor grumbled, god what a prick. Couldn't he see that things would be easier for everyone involved if he just did what I wanted him to? It wasn't rocket science or anything.

It wasn't like I was even that injured. All I had was a sprained ankle, which had been braced back on the ship.

The little man opened his mouth to say something else, but then a large thud drew our attention.

I glanced over just in time to see Lara stagger upright from where she had fallen on the far side of her bed. From here, all I could see was her disheveled pony tail and the back of her hospital gown.

"Sam!" She shouted. I winced as she ripped the IV out of her arm, somehow not getting tangled up in the wires. She shouted my name again, rambling almost incoherently as she staggered towards the door. "Sam! Where are you?!"

I was already on my feet, but an orderly got to Lara first. I didn't catch what the man was saying, but apparently it wasn't enough to satisfy Lara.

I started to say something, I don't know what, anything, just to calm her down for a sec. But before I could, Lara was moving.

I watched as she flipped up the IV stand, hooking the man's legs like something out of 'Xena, Warrior Princess' before yanking him clean off his feet.

I winced when I heard the meaty _smack_ as the man hit the tiles, and again when Lara caught him in the chest with the legs of the stand, forcing him back to the ground.

"Where is she, you bastard!" She shouted. Holy shit. Now I'm not a psychologist or anything but that looks like a real clear sign of PTSD if I ever saw one.

"Lara!" I said, quickly moving to her side. Standing this close to her I could practically feel the feverish heat coming off her skin. "Lara, Sweetie, I'm here. I'm safe, Lara." I frantically waved off another orderly as she turned to look at me. The doctor was apparently content to stand in the corner, eyes wide.

Heh, he'd probably never seen an episode of 'Xena, Warrior Princess'. Well, okay, neither had I, but the island had done a pretty okay job at desensitizing me to this sort of casual violence.

Maybe I was still in shock?

"Sam?" Lara whispered. One of her hands came up and cupped my cheek, and I did my best to smile calmly, even as I reached out to tug my girl's makeshift monk spade from her grip.

"Sam, Sam I-"

"Shhhhh…" I shushed her. "It's okay, sweetie." I said, keeping my face in a smile. "We're okay. We're not in danger anymore, we're on Okinawa now, remember?"

Lara blinked dazedly. "Oki…nawa?" Her brow furrowed adorably. Of course, there was no way she could remember us arriving here. She'd been passed out for almost the entire return trip, after that first day.

But it made her pause for a second, gave me time to finish extracting the IV stand from her grip and usher her back towards the bed. All the while, I made soft cooing noise, whispering how everything was okay now, and how there was no need to worry, don't worry Lara, we're gonna be fine, okay?

Slowly, the light of comprehension returned to her eyes. "Sam." She murmured. Reaching out, she yanked me into a hug. I could _feel_ the chorded sheel of her muscles shift as she tightened her arms around me.

"That's right." She murmured. "I did it, I saved you…"

"Yeah, yeah." I murmured fondly, returning the hug. "My hero. Now try to get some sleep okay? I promise, nothing bad will happen to us here."

Lara mumbled something that sounded like a yes, but well, she didn't seem quite ready to let go yet. But hey, that's okay, I've always been a big fan of hugs. And for all the shit she went through for me, well, I'd happily let her hug me all day long, consider me Lara's new personal hug dispenser.

If she was as messed up as she looked right now, she could use them.

It took some doing to get her back in bed. Now, I may not be able to scale a cliff with nothing but an ice axe as pieces of a collapsing temple rained down upon me, but let me tell you, it took a whole different level of skill to get a clingy Lara Croft to finally settle down in her hospital bed.

After that ordeal, I turned to the doctor, gave him a _look_ , and then (with no objection forthcoming) climbed into the bed right next to Lara's.

He looked over my ankle and redid the wrapping before prescribing a regiment of 'preventative' antibiotics, but then he finally got out of my hair. He couldn't do it without frowning at me for being 'unladylike' or some shit of course. Jesus, I've had breakups that were easier than this.

Maybe it's time we start seeing new people doc. I wondered if I could get myself another provider assigned, maybe flex my insurance a little bit, not like I'd ever used it before now.

But after he left everything was fine. I took the pills without complaint, the last thing Lara needed was to wake up and find me half dead from some obscure pacific island parasite. At that point I was pretty ready to pass out, eyelids drooping and everything, the whole nine yards, but then I noticed my camera sitting at Lara's bedside.

I'd been recording when the doctor had come in and started talking about moving me to another room. Naturally, he'd been talking to a nurse, the same one Lara took out none the less. I'd quickly made my opinion on that matter very clear.

And the rest is history.

However… it might also be _recorded_ history. I groaned when I realized that I'd almost definitely forgot to turn off the camera when I started tearing into the guy. It's memory was probably almost completely gone by now, it'd been at least half an hour, if the batter wasn't just flat out dead.

Sighing at the indignities forced upon me, I got out of bed and shuffled over to it, pickup up my camera and checking it over with the same level of care that I'd seen Roth reserve for his prize pistols.

I winced at the memory, before pushing on. Just like the man said, you have to keep moving.

For a moment I wondered how many times Lara must have repeated that same turn of phrase to herself on Yamatai, before pushing it all out of my head.

Focus on the camera.

I quickly stopped the recording as I hobbled back over to my bed. I didn't bother deleting anything yet, I'd chop off the parts of the footage where nothing was happening later or something. It might make decent documentary material, who knows.

If nothing else, the part with me badmouthing the doc might be worth a laugh. I usually didn't go off on people like that after all. If nothing else, I could salvage the sound file as an mp3 so I could play it for Lara when she woke up.

Well, I could do that if I had a computer. The camera itself was a hardy piece of tech, but I'd picked it out because I thought it would survive life onboard a ship or a tropical island, not because it came with any sort of readymade editing software.

Luckily, I'd express ordered a pair of tablets from Amazon as soon as we made land. It'd be easy enough to upload some basic editing tools, maybe Sony Vegas or something quick like that. Plus, then I could finally save all the footage I'd taken during the voyage.

I wasn't sure if I was ready to watch it yet… but I knew I'd want to in the future. Besides, if I knew Lara, she would want anything with Roth's face in it. Girl had a thing for mementos.

The other tablet I'd probably fill up with some subscriptions to the archeology magazines that Lara usually read. Hopefully that would help keep her occupied during what was probably going to be a prolonged hospital stay.

Yawning, I set the most recent video to play back. Might as well see if it was worth anything.

I was treated to an image of Lara, sleeping peacefully for what might have been the first time in a week as I hummed a gentle lullaby to her.

I turned the volume down some, letting my eyes drift shut as I listened… I smirked a bit when I heard my recorded voice start lambasting the doctor. God, I sounded like mom. She always had the _best_ 'I know best' voice when she was talking to other corporate execs.

I giggled sleepily at the thought of one day using that voice on my own children, when they did something dumb. Of course, _I'd_ make sure there was also cake and presents when they did stuff right too…

S' was strange though, I thought I heard myself talking in an older dialect of Japanese… or something…

 **1.3**

The camera had died during the night.

All the spare batteries I'd brought for it had been on the _Endurance_ , the charging station as well. So here I was, the next morning, staring at a black screen and wondering if my fuzzy recollections of last night had been anything more than a dream. Did I even want to know for sure one way or the other?

Grumbling, I pushed my thoughts, and the camera, away. Getting hung up on stuff like that wasn't helping anyone, least of all me. I needed to keep my head, getting sucked into a well of survivors guilt was the last thing I needed.

I ran through my mental "not the Sun Queen" checklist (patent pending) before putting he issue out of my mind.

I already had this breakdown anyway. I'm me, not Himiko, and there's no reason to spend any more time dwelling on it.

"Just keep moving." I whispered to myself.

So, on the itinerary today we have an authentic Japanese tea ceremony at then thirty. Unfortunately brought to you by the television, because my body was crying out for caffeine. After that was a visit from the doctors, who checked me over. After confirming that, no, my condition wasn't deteriorating, and, yes, I was being a _good little girl_ and taking all my medicine they turned their attention to Lara.

This time they put a new splint on her arm, where the x-rays had revealed a micro fracture from blunt force trauma. Now she had a matching set with the cast on her opposite leg.

God, Lara. What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you? I must have been the Buddha in a past life.

-0-

Later that night I found myself staring out the hospital window, rain pattering heavily against the glass. It was practically torrential, actually, and I frowned as a large gust of wind rattled the hospital.

No, I probably shouldn't mess with the weather like this. Not, like, without a hundred years of research. There were probably all _sorts_ of nasty consequences, not to mention the karmic backlash if I set of the next ice age.

Ugh. I said that, but I could feel the storm in my _bones._ I know that line was like something out of a bad Indiana Jones knock off, but wasn't that just my _life_ right now? The storm was driving me batty, filling me with jitters like a bad acid trip. The storm was just making it impossible to fall asleep.

But no, I can't mess with the weather so flippantly just because I wanted to catch up on my beauty sleep. My resolve would stand firm I tell you!

Jeez, besides its not like this would make the first time I'd fallen asleep still high enough to be a fucking cloud. There were plenty of times I'd only made it back to our 'flat' because Lara had half dragged, half carried me out of whatever party we'd been at. If I could deal with _that_ , then I could handle a little bit of nervous energy. It wasn't even that bad, barely even a light caffeine buzz.

With a sigh, I rolled over, trying to get comfortable yet again

Another gale rattled with windows in their frames, and I heard a quiet whimper of the pounding of the rain.

Blinking, I sat up, rubbing at my eyes. "Lara?" I called.

I got another stifled sob in reply.

With a frown, I slipped out of bed, moving through the curtains that the night shift nurse had pulled closed around Lara's section of the room. I'd been too tired to argue at the time, but what if the curtains had muffled the whimpering?

"Sweetie?" I called quietly. "Are you awake?"

She wasn't.

I blew out a puff of air, part relief part exasperation. Of course she wasn't awake, the doctors had put her out for the time being so that she could sleep. You know, Sam, like she was doing right now?

I looked down at my best friend, just giving her a brief once over. That's when I noticed how her brow was creased nervously, and how she was shuddering lightly beneath the thin hospital blanket.

"Oh, honey." I murmured, brusher in bangs off to the side. I winced as my fingers touched her forehead. She felt sweaty and feverish. I could even feel her trembling from the brief contact, shivering like a wounded bird.

I almost broke down again on the spot. She didn't deserve to end up like this.

I mean, this was Lara _Croft_ of all people. She saved my life a dozen times on Yamatai, got to me through impossible odds, and saved me from what seemed like a fate worse than death.

I can't deny that it made a girl feel special. But more importantly, it made me realize how special Lara was, how unstoppable. I really couldn't have picked anyone else in the world to be a better best friend.

She was my rock.

And seeing her laid up like this? God, this wasn't _fair._

I know, oh I _know_ , that no one ever said life was fair and was telling the truth in about it, but this just took the god damned cake. I mean, this was the part of the movie where the conquering hero returns, roughed up but steady enough on her feet to go out with her girls for mai tais and jager bombs.

She does not get stuck in a medically induced coma while the doctors rush to treat her for sepsis, blood poisoning, and _bullet wounds_.

I'd been trying not to dwell on it, but one of the nurses told me she'd been in for another minor surgery this morning while I'd been asleep. They hadn't even given me the chance to sit outside the operating theatre and worry until the light went off and they told me she was okay.

There could have been lethal complications and I never would have _known_.

I guess that was the downside of making such a combative first impression.

I winced as a nasty gust of wind snapped me out of my thoughts. Lara started thrashing weakly, forcing me to pin her arms to the mattress.

"Lara." I murmured gently. "Lara, sweetie, it's okay." She showed no sign that she'd heard, but I kept at it. "You're save, your safe here. I'm safe, Lara." I said, "No one's going to get us here, no one's in danger."

She whimpered, mumbling incoherently as her shuddering grew more pronounced.

"No-!" I heard her hiss. "Not … no… storm, Roth! The storm!"

I bit my lip, turning to face the window, but I could already tell.

The storm had gotten worse.

Rain _pounded_ against the glass, and I could practically see the windows rattling in their frames with each gust of wind. The sky was completely black beyond. I could barely make out the lights of the city beyond for how thick the down pour was.

I looked back at Lara, trying to hold back my own tears.

Each time the wind rattled the hospital, Lara grew even more agitated. We were quickly reaching the point where I worried she hurt herself if I let go for the time it took to reach the _call button_. And forget pinning both her arms down one handed, even without the tangle of tubes and wires I doubted I'd be able to keep a grip. Lara had always been stronger than me, a natural athlete.

She kept muttering about storms.

I could feel it inside me, the storm that sent Lara into fits.

God, it was so hard to describe, this quintessential sixth sense. It was like a pressure, built up inside my chest and pressing down on the surface of my skin at the same time. I could _tell_ that the storm was far from over, even as I could tell how easy it would be to reach out and take the reins. It was raging against the island of Okinawa.

And then there was Lara, whimpering and trashing on the bed. She'd only deteriorate if I left her like this. Already it was getting hard for me to keep her arms pinned down. I must have been giving her bruises at this point, but she just kept thrashing and struggling, face crunch up in a terrified expression.

She just looked so tired and scared. She looked like she was at the end of her rope, hoping that just this once, someone would step up to the plate and rescue _her_ instead.

How on Earth could I not respond to that?

It was only after the rain stopped that I realized it. I'd already taken hold of the storm, and pushed it out to sea, leaving nothing but calm air behind. On the bed before me, Lara calmed down almost immediately, snuggling limply back into her covers.

I let out a choked laugh.

The decision had been so easy, so effortless.

After all my talk about 'understanding the consequences' and 'not starting a global weather catastrophe', it had only taken Lara crying about storms for _two_ seconds before my resolve had crumpled like a house of cards.

I always hated that show.

"Don't… don't say I never did anything for you." I whispered to Lara as I started backing away, trying to wrap my head around the monumental nature of what had just happened. No, what I'd just _done_.

Yeah I'd been making light of it all day, but that's because I barely believed that these powers existed at all!

"If I started another ice age, I'm assigning you at _least_ fifty percent of the blame, Lara." I mumbled petulantly.

It's a good thing that she couldn't hear me. She didn't have to bear the brunt of my worldview being tipped on its head all over again.

With one last glance at my sleeping best friend, I turned and slipped back into my bed.

Really, there wasn't any point in denying the truth anymore.

The wind back on the ship had been one thing. It could have been a complete coincidence, or even a fever dream. My sixth sense could have been nothing more than some spoopy side effects from all the drugs I had taken.

But the storm? There was no way to rationalize _that_ away. I'd take control of the wind, the clouds, the rain, the unconquered forces of nature no less, and told them off like a bunch of rowdy interns for waking up my friend during a shoot.

I was, officially, Samantha Nishimura, the First of Her Name...

Queen of the Sun

 **1.4**

Three days later, Lara finally woke up.

I'm pretty sure she would have been in and out of consciousness for the past few days if not for the coma drugs. Oh who am I kidding, if the doctors hadn't dosed her up to the eyeballs she'd have been back on her feet in twelve ours, tops, and raising hell for the entire hospital.

If there was one thing Lara _never_ did well, it was enforced bed rest. Girl had _drive_. Of course, that didn't mean she sometimes didn't drive right into a wall.

Those three days had been pretty rough, not gonna lie.

I just needed to talk to _someone_ about, well, my new additions. I guess that's the best way to reference them…

Unfortunately, my first, last, and _only_ choice had been unconscious. Don't get me wrong, Jonas and Reyes were good friends, maybe even a bit more than that for all we survived together. But they still weren't people I could confide something of _this_ magnitude to. Like, at all.

The last thing Reyes wanted to hear about was more 'supernatural bullshit' her words, not that I disagreed. And she actually checked out of the hospital a day and a half ago. Didn't even stick around for Lara to wake up, saying how she needed to get back to her daughter.

Well, at least she had the decency to wait until Lara was 'out of the woods' so to speak. But I think I made my point. Not exactly confidant material.

And Jonas? Well, Jonas would have been willing to listen for sure, but it was easy to tell he wanted to put the island behind him almost as much as Reyes did. I remember, seeing him kneeling on the beach back on Yamatai, looking out over the waves like a man looking at the only way home.

It wasn't the best time, for any of us.

Not to mention that neither of them had even been _there_. Relaying the whole thing second hand, up to and including zombie face _before_ dropping an even bigger bomb on them?

No, just no. Even _I_ wasn't willing to go that far.

And Jonas was a guy. I mean, not that I thought he'd start cracking sex jokes about how Himiko was inside of me (so much ewww by the way), but it still wasn't something I wanted to go over with him in all the gory detail!

So yeah, neither of them would really want to know, and neither of them had been there.

Neither of them knew the whole truth, and in all honestly, I was more than happy keeping it that way.

The only ones who knew were me, Lara, and the mountain of corpses she'd climbed to reach me.

God, Sam, morbid much?

 _Anyway_ , my point was that I was a girl _sorely_ missing her best friend and confidant. I was almost at the point where I'd considered buying a _diary_ from the gift shop. Can you believe it?

So waking up on Sunday Morning to see Lara _sitting up_ was really the best thing that could have happened to a girl.

She actually didn't notice me at first, as I slowly levered myself upright.

Lara was facing the far wall, slowly twining a stretch of blanket over her fingers in that way she did when she was lost in her thoughts. In a word, pensive.

I'm pretty sure my first coherent thought (because, yanno it's kina hard to gauge these things) was how she shouldn't be stuck in her head at a time like this. After that things more or less happened on their own.

What can I say, I'm a spontaneous sort of person.

With all the stealth of a ninja, I slipped out of my bed. My feet, clad in a newly acquired pair of fuzzy socks, didn't make a sound as I touched down on the tile.

Lara had always been a fierce advocate of sleeping barefoot, but I would show her the error in her ways. I grinned.

Slowly, carefully, I slipped across the distance between us, making sure that Lara had absolutely _no_ idea I was right behind her.

I rose up, arms inching forward towards Lara's sides, and then…

And then Lara reached back and caught one of my hands, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Morning, Sam." She said.

I slumped. At least, I _thought_ she'd had no idea I was right behind her. Talk about an uber let down. Still, hearing her voice again made it all more than worth it. I squeezed back.

"Hey, Lara." I said. Giving up all prentense, I clambered up onto her bed. "I thought for sure I had you that time."

Lara snorted, rolling her eyes. I figured annoyance at my antics was a good place to start.

Gotta keep moving forward after all.

But instead of replying with some dry British wit, or a playing admonishment (not that they seemed much different on the receiving end), Lara turned to look at me.

I cocked my head to the side at her sudden change of tack, blinking beneath the intensity of her stair. Her eyes racked over every inch of me with all the focus of an X-ray machine, even to point of holding up my arms so that she could get a better look.

"Um… Lara, Sweetie, is there something you want to tell me?" Cause this was crossing very rapidly into uncanny valley territory.

Lara put down my arm, as she blushed lightly. Well, at least I wasn't the only one who thought that was odd. "Just wanted to make sure you were okay." She said quietly.

Got to admit I did a bit of a double take there.

"Wait." I said. "that _I'm_ okay? Sweetie they were pulling shrapnel out of your legs for _days_!" Lara took a moment to digest that.

However, and this is just going off the four years of college when I lived, breathed, and ate with this girl, the expression on Lara's face very much wasn't a 'Wow, Sam's right, I should worry about myself' expression. I felt it was more of a 'So that's why my legs hurt when I carried Sam down the mountain' expression.

I felt a sudden growing urge to face palm.

Then Lara turned to me and shrugged. "It was worth it." She said with a smile.

I did face palm.

I heard Lara snickering at me. I wanted to say something scathing, I really did. But how the hell am I supposed to snark when the woman who fought her way through hell and back to save my life tells me 'it was worth it'?

"You sure know how to make a girl feel special, Croft." I said. I could feel the soft smile tugging at my lips.

Lara laughed again, but more sleepily this time. I could tell that even our brief interaction had left her worn out, so I started to move from the bed. "Get some sleep." I said. "We can talk more tomorrow."

But before my feet could touch the floor, Lara reached out and snagged my wrist.

I glanced back in surprise. What, did she want a bedtime story, a goodnight kiss? Going off that _adorable_ blush coloring her cheeks (dramatic gasp) could it be the later?

Master of social interaction that I was, I let none of this most secret inner monologue show as I asked: "Sweetie?"

"Could you…" Lara started, before glancing away. For a second I wondered if she was even going to continue but then she seemed to find some inner reserve of courage. "Could you sleep… next to me… for tonight?"

I gaped. Had she actually?

But no, now was not the time to be confused, not when such a perfect opportunity had presented itself!

"Why, Lady _Croft_." I said, absolutely _scandalized_. "How forward! Why, if this were to get out I would be _ruined_ for marriage."

Lara wacked me in the side. I almost lost my smile at how feeble the blow was, but through force of will I stayed cheerful.

"Shut it, you." She said, smiling tiredly. "Just lie down already. The last thing I need is more nightmares."

I frowned. "Nightmares?" I asked. Lara immediately looked defensive. God, if not for that slip would she even have mentioned it to me? I quickly slipped under the covers, snuggling into her side. "Sweetie, you do need to talk about these things." I said.

She looked away. Oh come on, Lara, don't be standoffish now of all times. How am I supposed to _help_ if you won't tell me what's going on?

But finally, on pain of me returning to my own bed for the night (not that I could ever had brought myself to abandon her in this state), she cracked.

"It's just the one." Lara told me. "Nothing serious, just… I had a dream that I couldn't find you and I had to fight an Oni with nothing but an IV stand to get you back." She frowned. "It was… weird."

I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the laughter.

Lara noticed. Of _course_ she noticed, I wasn't even being remotely subtle. But god, fighting an _Oni?_

"Sam?" Lara asked, frown growing more pronounced.

"Wh- what a remarkable _dream_." I gasped out. "How surprising. I-I- I'm sure it must have been a complete _flight of fancy_."

Slowly, as my shoulders continued to tremble from barely contained giggles, Lara's expression shifted from confusion to _deathly_ embarrassment.

" _No-!_ " She got out. God her cheeks must have been incandescent. "I- I don't believe you!"

That prompted yet another bout of giggles which I had to fight down. All the while, Lara continued to glare at me, cheeks blazing, as I tried to get my laughter under control.

"Well." I said, more than a little breathlessly. "if you check the wheels on your drip…."

She continued to glare, but I only smiled winsomely in response.

Then, slowly, she leaned over the side of the bed. I could pinpoint the exact moment she saw the bent stand, and made the connection to where she'd no doubt pinned the orderly, oh I'm sorry, the _Oni_ to the ground in her dream.

She rolled back into the bed, hands covering her face as I lay next to her, grinning relentlessly.

One word described it all.

 _"Bollocks."_

 **1.5**

"So Reyes already left?"

I nodded against Lara's shoulder. "She said she needed to get home." I said, rolling my eyes. "I get it, she has a kid, nevermind that if the trip had gone as planned we wouldn't be back for another week." She couldn't even have stayed around for the 'wake up'? That's the most important part of _any_ hospital scene and she just ups and ditches?

Lara sighed "It's really not important."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Sam, can we just… not… right now?"

I shrugged, before smoothly transitioning to another topic. "Jonah should be by sometime during visiting hours. Daddy set him up in a hotel."

"That's nice."

I glanced up at Lara. Her expression was studiously blank as she gazed up at the ceiling. For all I knew she could be counting the dots, I certainly did that often enough when I got stuck in the hospital.

More likely however, was that she was thinking about the island again. I frowned.

"Sweetie, you're… we're gonna have to talk about it eventually."

"Nothing to talk about." Lara said firmly. "We survived. It's over, all that's left is to keep moving forward."

I glanced away, worrying my lip. "And to resolve that pesky little SDF investigation." I added. When Lara looked at me in surprise, I smiled apologetically. "Just saying. There are a lot of people who died on that island, of course the government is getting involved."

"God," Lara slumped, quite a feat considering she was already lying down. "Sam, are you serious right now?"

"Well, they probably won't charge you with anything, because that would be monumentally stupid, and my father would _shred_ the government on all of his channels in the most embarrassing way imaginable, but" I shrugged. "It's not over, not for the rest of the world. Everyone wants to know what happened. The media storm over this would be newsworthy in and of itself."

Lara groaned. "Bloody brilliant."

"It is what it is." I said. "Lara, I know that archeologists usually don't have to deal with that much media attention, but this is _big_ , and that's before you include the religious fanatics and storm guards!"

Lara clenched her jaw, but didn't say anything. She looked like she was struggling with something deep, like what color of nail polish to put on before going to a club.

I kid, I'm not that shallow, honestly. Lara though, I'd only seen her this during her honor's thesis, and you know, all of Yamatai but that goes without saying.

Closing her eyes, Lara let out a breath of air. "Fine." She said.

I blinked. "Fine?"

Lara nodded, as if reaffirming her resolve. "Fine. I'll do the interviews, I'll fully cooperate with the investigation, I'll… I'll do whatever I have to do, appear on whatever talk shows. All of it." She said with a depreciating laugh. "That's one way to get grant money, I guess. And… they deserve it, Grimm and Roth and Alex and the rest… they deserve to be remembered."

"I- Wait, what?" I rolled over on top of Lara so that I could look her in the eyes. "Grants? Sweetie, what are you talking about?"

She looked up at me for a moment, worrying at her lower lip. Oh no, I knew that expression. It was the one she always made when she was wondering how much to say, and more importantly how much she could get away with _not_ telling.

Well, two could play at that game.

"Your lips look, like, criminally kissable when you do that." I said suddenly.

Lara blinked, before sputtering and trying valiantly to push me off. "S-Sam!" Well, I hadn't managed to make her forget her name this time, but the blush was a good start. Smirking, I acquiesced to her unspoken demand and slid back to 'my' side of the bed.

"So, grant money." I said. "Spill, now."

Lara sighed. She knew what I did there, and she knew I knew she knew, so on ad nauseum. But she also knew that, unless she told me what I wanted to know, I would continue acting like this until her resolve finally crumbled.

"There has to be more." She said quietly.

Okay, I'm not sure what I had been expecting. But that wasn't it. "Huh? Whaddayah mean?"

"That's 'what do you mean'…" She muttered, before continuing. "I _mean_ Yamatai."

For a second I was confused, but then, there was only one thing on Yamatai (other than ancient ruins, which went without saying) that Lara could feasibly want _more_ of.

"You mean… m- Himiko's powers." I whispered. "You're going to go _looking_ for other places like Yamatai? Really?"

"I have to know, Sam. Yamatai… Yamatai, was _real_. The Oni the… Magic." Oh did I ever know the magic was real. Lara made a complicated face at that. "The line between myth and realityis thinner than I ever thought possible."

I bit my lip. "And _you're_ the one who has to go looking for them?" I asked. "It can't be anyone else? You can't even take a break? Whatever you're looking for, they've been around for hundreds of years. Do you really have to go hunting for them _right now?_ "

"Sam, I…" She sighed. "I used to laugh at my father." She told me, her voice becoming softer, more pensive. "I would mock his theories, not only to my peers but also to my professors. Never once did I consider that he might have been onto something. God, I build my _entire career_ off of discrediting mythological superstition, and then on my first real expedition… I find that maybe my father wasn't so wrong after all."

"Sweetie…"

"So yes," She said, as if I hadn't even spoken. "It does have to be me, who looks for the truth, who _finds_ it. Even if it's for no other reason than I would never be able to look at myself again if I didn't."

"What truth, Lara?" I asked quietly. But I'm pretty sure I already knew the answer.

She looked me dead in the eye. "All of it."

Yep. Can I call it or what?

I must have been frowning pretty intensely because Lara looked away right after her declaration.

"Sam, look." She said after a moment. "I know what you're thinking." Oh do you now? Please, _enlighten me_. My expression, I'm sure, was thunderous. "but, it's best if you just stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself. Go home, be safe," She said. "Live your own life! I refuse to drag anyone into this. But… I _have_ to know."

I scoffed. "And you expect me to just 'live my life' while you're off risking yours? What kind of person do you take me for?"

"I told you-"

"You don't get to tell people not to worry Lara!" I said, raising myself up into a sitting position so I could _really_ get in her face. "You don't get to tell people not to care. That's not a choice you get to make _for_ me! You can say it all you want, but I'm _going_ to be worried about you." I shook my head. "You're my best friend, you saved my life on that island, and you really think I can just _not care?!_ "

I laughed, rubbing at my eyes. "Who the hell do you think I am?" I whispered.

"Sam, stop." Lara said. "You're being unreasonable."

I almost exploded all over the hospital room. I swear to fucking god, I'm being unreasonable? _I'm being unreasonable?!_

But no, no more screaming. I have _self-_ control. Yelling, yelling wouldn't solve anything right now. She just… didn't understand. But accidentally the hospital (as I was feeling like doing right now) was only going to make her cut me off.

Lara didn't _do_ emotion at times like this, she did _logic._

I sighed. Who the fuck am I kidding. I couldn't be logical right now. Lara, my best friend, was going to charge in the direction of the most supernatural looking dig or expedition she could get signed on for, and then she'd vanish off the face of the Earth and I'd be left wondering if she was going to be fine, or if she'd somehow, against all odds, found another Yamatai.

How on god's green Earth was I supposed to be logical about that shit?

Only one option remained. Because I knew Lara, and even if I didn't her exploits on Yamatai would have provided ample evidence. If she was set on a path, there was nothing I could do to turn her aside. Nothing I could do to win this argument. The only choice I had left was to make straight the way of the lord. Or Lady rather.

"Okay." I said. "I'll be reasonable then. I'm going with you."

This _impending_ argument, on the other hand, I was _definitely_ going to win.

 **Interlude: The Survivor**

If there was one thing Lara knew about her best friend it was that _nothing_ good ever came out of Sam being 'reasonable'.

Case and point, Sam's most recent 'reasonable' suggestion. It was only made worse, from the nascent tomb raider's perspective, because she had no counter arguments ready for this line of… reasoning.

Lara honestly hadn't considered it. The last thing she expected from Sam, a girl who's idea of a strenuous exercise before Yamatai probably involved three guys from the varsity rowing team, was for her to jump right back into fray. Granted, not _every_ expedition ended in gunfire, or at least Lara hoped not, but Sam's decision still took her by surprise.

The pain and the loss was almost enough to send Lara limping back to her family's cozy manor house in England. But the desire to _know_ overpowered the fears festering in her heart.

She wondered what had driven Sam to make the same choice.

Or rather, a small part of her wondered that, while the rest was still shocked by Sam's declaration. But before she could even start to formulate a reply, Sam had already shut down any point she might have made.

It started with funding:

"Even if Daddy _wouldn't_ fund all of your expeditions at a loss for saving my life, that doesn't change that this might be the most profitable segment his network has done all year." Sam said. "You'll still have to do _some_ interviews of course. Buuuut I'll be able to screen the questions _and_ take care of that pesky funding issue all on one fell swoop."

Oh Lara had tried to change her friend's mind. Unwilling to reference their experiences on Yamatai directly, she still brought up the issue of Sam's personal safety. Even if they never ran into a situation as bad as the island, Lara had implored, the placed expeditions and digs went were rarely _safe_. It was a monumental risk!

"Life is a risk, Sweetie." Sam replied smugly. "If it makes you feel better, I'll start some self-defense classes. Hell, I'll even do a basic firearms course before we head out. It'll be hard to find a place to do that in _Japan_ , but I'm sure I can work something out."

Sam paused. " _Not_ that I expect the next dig to feature enough armed cultists to film an Indiana Jones movie, but who knows, I might end up saving you next time around."

There had been something in that statement, some hidden meaning that Lara couldn't bother to decipher right now, not when her friend was being, despite her claims, so decidedly _un_ reasonable.

In the end though, Lara had been pushed back to her final, desperate, arguments about the future of Sam's career. She'd cringed internally even when she brought that up. But unsurprisingly, her friend had been ready for that too:

" _You're_ the most interesting thing I could possible make a documentary on right now." Sam said with a grin "Sweetie, you're gonna make archaeology sexy."

And as Lara sputtered, Sam closed in for the kill. She reached out and took Lara's hand, putting on a wounded expression. "Lara, if… if you don't want me bothering you anymore… you can just say so…"

And Lara had _known_ she was being played. But what, dear god _what_ , was she supposed to say in the face of those big brown eyes and pouting lips?

So, resolve shattered, she'd acquiesced. As a reward, Lara was savvy enough in how her best friend operated to notice, Sam took care of all the details.

The days following her discharge from the hospital passed in a blur of checking tickets and compiling destinations. Lara had expected to have to manage… affairs as well, but the funerals she anticipated had been postponed indefinitely.

The hardest part, and the part she was most thankful that Sam had taken care of, was getting custody of Roth's personal effects. Keeping ahold of his dual pistols, in a nation with as strict gun laws as _Japan_ had become its own special nightmare.

Lara thought it matched nicely with the vague and restless nightmares that plagued her whenever Sam wasn't close by during the night.

Roth hadn't been big on trusting the government to manage his estate, never bought into that last will and testament 'bullshit'. So while there had been enough, in the end, to solidify Lara as the grizzled Scotsman's heir, it had taken a lot of work.

And, Lara suspected, even more money. But since Sam handled the details, she would never know for sure, and a part of her was glad for that reprieve.

But despite, or perhaps because, of how busy her days had become, the day of the interview had crept up on her.

Before she even had a chance to prepare, Lara somehow found herself in the studio, but perhaps it was better that way.

The place was mercifully empty, lacking the live audience a 'talk show' like this would usually host. Even still, the technicians, and to a lesser extent the host herself, had been enough to put Lara on edge.

Intellectually, she knew that there was no chance anyone was going to _attack_ her. And, because she was firmly in _control_ of herself, she never did anything more than tense up when someone _slipped_ out of her field of view, or tromped up behind her in an obvious fashion.

No matter how much she'd wanted to flip that one mic tech who came up and tapped her on the shoulder.

And then, still blinking make up powder from her lashes, the interview started.

The prescreened questions had washed over her like high tide on a commercial beach. She remembered answering them, almost in a fugue as she stumbled her way through the interview.

It helped, Lara was sure, that Sam was sitting right next to her on the oddly colored couch. She brought personality, and a much needed dose of levity besides, that complemented Lara's stoic demeanor. Lara almost believed that it was enough so that she came off as introspective as she talked, rather than shell shocked.

But even then, one question blindsided her. Towards the end of the interview, when Lara had shaken off her practically robotic affect, and when she was counting the seconds until the whole thing was _over_ instead of watching the hostess for any sign of treachery, she was attacked.

"Now," the hostess said. "preliminary statements by the SDF suggest that you aren't going to be charged with anything." A small, commiserating smile. Lara almost gagged, as if this woman understood _anything_ of what they had gone through. "It was all in self-defense after all right?" Which had been a point they'd established early on.

"Despite that, early estimates put your potential kill count at over _a hundred people_. I think I speak for all of us when I ask, how on earth are you coping with this? Knowing that, defense or no, you _personally_ ended the lives of so many?"

At first, all Lara could think of was that there was no way this question was one of the ones that had been agreed on beforehand. A thought that was quickly corroborated when Sam immediately jumped in.

"How can you just ask that?!" She said, loudly. "We haven't been back in Japan for a week and-"

"Sam." Lara cut in, earlier surprise fading away. "It's fine." She quirked a smile. "I suppose it _was_ too much to ask that a talk show play by any sort of rules…"

She brushed off her friends look of concern, focusing instead on the vaguely offended look of the hostess. After a moment to gather her thoughts, she continued with quiet determination.

"If you're asking me if I feel guilty over what I did, over what I _had_ to do," She said. "then the answer is no. I don't regret any of it. The four of us were lucky to make if off that island… and we lost enough good men and women there… _without_ me joining them here."

It wasn't something that Lara had thought about, but as she spoke she realized that every word was true.

"What do you regret then?" The hostess asked.

Lara took a deep breath. "I regret." She said. "Not killing them faster."

There was a sharp gasp, but with her eyes closes she couldn't tell if it came from Sam, the Hostess, or both. She ignored it. "Maybe… maybe if I'd been faster, or more decisive, or any number of things, then maybe more people would have made it out of that hell hole alive."

Lara opened her eyes, lifting her chin defiantly, daring someone to contradict her, to condemn her. "I lost so many people I cared about on that island. People I've known since I was a _child_." She said. "I will _never_ regret trying to save them, only that I wasn't able to succeed."

A/N: So here's a new story. I'm cross posting from SB. I write each chapter in short 1-2k word snippets like this. After each chapter is completed, including the ending interlude (and isn't that an oxymoron) I upload it here at .

Hope you all enjoy. Don't forget to favorite and review!


	2. Forecast

**Forecast**

 **2.1**

I don't think I could have booked flights any faster for a million dollars.

I mean, I'm sure part of it was that I had completely cut my TV time; the last thing I needed was to see another commentator dissecting Lara's final response with all the care of a pyromaniac with a zippo lighter- Ugh, that doesn't even make sense.

Point is, most of the 'analysts' seemed to be happier with lighting fires than actually going over our responses. And we were out of the country by the end of the week, as soon as the SDF said that their preliminary investigation was over and we were no longer being held.

As morbid as it sounds, it's almost a good think that Lara… killed everyone on the island. Because of that, we wouldn't have to show up in court.

In the end, we wound up in a nice, if small, hotel in New York. I'd had someone else do the reservation, so hopefully the media would take a few more days to realize we were here. Lara, maybe more than a little paranoid (after we had practically been forced to flee the country so I guess it's justified), had refused to stay at Daddy's penthouse.

Given that he wasn't going to be in New York for another month, there wasn't any harm in it, but apparently Lara thought it would be to visible. Which, well, I guess she had a point. Still, the cloak and dagger grated on me, especially because all I wanted after a week on hospital cots or the god dammed ground was a goose feather pillow and en suite hot tube.

But sometimes we have to make sacrifices. I'd just hoped I'd been past sacrificing my bed, the cots on the Endurance notwithstanding. I know it must sound so shallow, but if a girl can have her beauty sleep, what can she have?

Of course, Lara had a different perspective on that. She'd been busy going through her dad's old notes, and some of the more 'recent' contributions to the field, since we had landed at JFK. As always, she dived into her work with single minded devotion, leaving me with plenty of free time on my hands.

If only I had more things to fill the hours with.

Mostly I just stayed around the hotel. I mean, I dipped out to practice at the gun range (an addition to my daily schedule that I never thought I'd have, but since Lara was trained primarily by Roth an ex-SAS card holding badass, I have to put in the hours if I ever want to be on par), but I was uncomfortable with leaving Sweetie alone for too long.

Mainly because if I didn't order room service or takeout she might forget to eat for dangerous period of time.

But at least it made catching up on my movie watching pretty easy. It's not like I'd missed any big releases during the expedition to Yamatai, but there were still the classics that never lost rewatch value… And it helped distract me from playing with the weather too much, but we don't talk about that.

Or more accurately, Lara and I didn't talk about that because I still hadn't found a good time to bring it up. The last thing I wanted was to catch her when she was already depressed or some shit. Unfortunately, I knew from term papers that procrastinating never ended well. If only I could pry my best friends face away from her notebooks for more than thirty seconds.

She doesn't even stop when we eat.

More and more though, I found myself staring out the window when it rained. Apparently April was a pretty dreary month in the Big Apple, and I guess could have changed that, but like I said, I was trying to stay away from messing too overtly with the local climate.

Still, there was just something about feeling the rain. I didn't do anything to it, and really it was a relief that I didn't have to seize control out of the weather 24/7, but letting the storm system slip through my metaphorical senses was calming.

I'd never been big on meditation, and before Yamatai I thought rain was depressing, but now I could do this for hours without feeling bored in the slightest.

"Staring out the window won't make it stop."

"You'd be surprised." I murmured. Then I blinked, my mind catching up to my mouth just a second too late. I turned around sheepishly, taking in Lara's rather bemused expression.

"So…" I said, pasting on a happy smile. "Decide to finally rejoin the land of the living?"

Lara rolled her eyes. "You're exaggerating."

"Sweetie, if we were dating, I'd so jealous of macbook right now." I said. "You sleep with the thing!"

Well at least that got an awkward chuckle as I patted the space next to me on the bed.

"You look tired." I noted.

Lara sighed, nodding vaguely. Well, at least she knew she was burning the candle at both ends, but honestly when has that stopped either of us.

"Just had to get through everything." She said quietly. "There were several recent journals that I… discarded out of hand because..." Lara shrugged and I nodded in understanding. "I just finished fact checking them as much as I could."

"Anything stand out?" I asked.

Lara shook her head. "Maybe Stonehenge, but I don't think it'll turn out to be any different from the last dozen 'breakthroughs'." She said. A small frown flicked across her face. "And I still haven't decoded my father's journals either. Leave it to the man who wrote his last will and testament using a Playfair Cipher."

I snorted in a most unlady like manner I'm sure. "God that's…" I shook my head, holding in laughter. "No offense, but it's not like people were lining up to steal his research."

"None taken." Lara said with a frown. "I don't think anyone really believed towards the end, not even mother."

Ouch. I had to hold back a wince at that. Talk about harsh but true; and I remember how prickly Lara used to get whenever her dad came up.

Reaching out, I took her hand. "We're going to fix that." I said softly. "Look, just say the word and we'll get some 'professional' code breakers to help. The last thing I'm gonna do is let your father's own paranoia stand in your way."

Lara shook her head. "This is personal. It wouldn't feel right." Then she met my gaze. "And, Sam… I really can't in good conscious let you come with me on these trips." She said.

I… wait, didn't we already have this argument? Learn when to let sleeping dogs lie, girl.

I sighed. "Sweetie, we agreed-"

"We didn't agree to anything." Lara interrupted me. "You dictated terms. And… and I categorically refuse to let you endanger yourself for my sake."

"Okay, first off, that's just rich coming from you, Miss Croft." I said, rolling my eyes. "Pot, please get to know kettle even more intimately while you're at it." I held up a hand to forestall her reply. "Second, I've done my firearms course, and got top mark thank you very much. I go to the range every day with some guy from fucking Black Water helping me step up my game."

"In a live fire situation-"

"And most importantly." I continued, bulldozing through her objection. "You don't get to make that decision."

"Yes I do." Lara said, eyes flashing. "Never mind that the expedition lead always gets to choose who's allowed to accompany them, I have more than enough leads to walk out of this room right now and-"

"And abandon me?" I asked. "And decide to never see me again? Cause that's what you're suggestion right now. And it's not funny, Lara!"

Silence.

Glaring, I stood up, pulling Lara with me. "You know what, screw it." I said. "I have something to show you, we're going to the roof." I was never going to find a good time to tell Lara, at this rate, so I might as well just make sure she has all the facts before leaving me behind like some damsel in distress.

Lara blinked, probably surprised by my sudden change of tack. "The door will be locked." She said, even as she let me pull her out into the hallway. "And it's raining."

"The rain doesn't matter. And please, you expect me to believe a locked door is gonna stop us." I said, rolling my eyes. "Did you think I missed the set of industrial grade lock picks you ordered? I'm the one sorting through the mail, Sweetie. Not to mention it came at the same time as my glock." On second thought, telling Lara that might not have been strictly necessary. But hey, I was gonna be dropping a bigger bomb on her momentarily, so hopefully me buying a hand gun wouldn't be such a big deal.

Lara groaned. "Twenty-two doesn't have enough kick for you, Sam?" She grumbled.

"I heard that nine millimeter rounds are pretty easy to find pretty much anywhere." I said, shrugging. Internally I was glad that she wasn't blowing this out of proportion. But I guess given her own growing collection of guns she didn't think she could judge. "So I thought it would be a good choice?"

"I still haven't agreed to let you come with me." Lara said.

"Look." I shot back with a sigh. "We can resume this argument after I finish my big reveal okay? I know you think I'm just being a drama queen but what I'm about to tell you is relevant information that completely changes the argument that is currently on hold."

I could feel her stare boring into the back of my head like a drill. Just keep moving, girl. Two at a time up the stairs.

"Sam." Lara said, voice deepening. "What did you do?" You know what, I can see why the Solari were scared of her in the end. That almost made me shiver.

"I didn't do anything." I said. "This is just… something that happened okay? And I know you're gonna make a big deal about it, so I figured it be best to just get it out of the way while we were having out other screaming match. Seems logical right?"

Lara sighed. "Sam, whatever it is, just tell me."

I drew to a stop before the rooftop access door. "I will. I promise." I sad. "On the roof." Lara shot me a glare. "Look, I know you won't believe me without proof, and I'm not budging on this, so can we please not argue about this? All you have to do is open the door."

We locked eyes for a moment. "Lara, please." I said. "I would have told you about this sooner, but there just wasn't time, and now you're talking about leaving out of the blue, so excuse me for trying to get the important stuff out of the way…"

In the end, she was the one who looked away, kneeling next to the door. "Alright, Sam." She said. "But after this we're finishing our earlier discussion okay?"

I smiled weakly. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

Lara made short work of the door, but the break had given me enough time to set up my… demonstration.

I watched Lara glance up at the sky in surprise as we walked out onto the roof. "It stopped raining?" She murmured.

"Well, not exactly." I said, biting back a nervous giggle. "I think it would be more accurate to say it stopped raining right here." Here being a circle about the length of the roof across, just for shock value. Slowly, I let it shrink until the rain fell in a tight cylinder around us, reaching all the way up to the sky.

"So!" I said suddenly. "Want to see me mess with the wind next? Or shall I try my hand at a lightning bolt?"

 **2.2**

Next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky.

Uh, not that I had actually tilted my head back or anything, but I was just kinda, you know, looking up now. And there was Lara!

How was she looking down at me? We're the same height. And why did the back of my head hurt so much, and-

And holy fuck Lara was pointing a gun at me.

For all the familiarity I'd gained with pistols over the past few weeks, the breath still caught in my throat when I realized what was going on.

I just couldn't take my eyes off it: the harsh black lines, the darkness of the barrel, the steely grip in which is rested. I was breathing too fast, some dim, rational, part of me noted, and the stinging _wetness_ at the back of my head indicated that I was probably bleeding.

But all that mattered was _gun_. More specifically _the_ gun in _my_ face. And the absolutely terrifying expression on Lara's.

I'd never seen her eyes look so cold and dead.

And then, for maximum impact, I'd lost my grip on the rain. The torrent washed over me in thick sheets, forcing my eyes shut. I was drenched in seconds.

Blinking streams of water from my eyes, I looked back up at Lara.

You'd think a girl would seem less intimidating with her hair plastered to her scalp… but if anything the storm only backlit her in fierce relief. The water did nothing to dilute the presence of the _gun_. It gleamed slickly, like greased lightning, whereas before it had been silver in a grave.

God, I could have laughed at myself, if I wasn't so close to tears. Figures it was _here_ staring death in the face for what, the third time?, that I uncovered my inner poet.

In sharp contrast to my inner monologue, Lara still hadn't said a word. She just stared down at me, face set in stone.

I swallowed, "U-um, Sweetie…" I asked quietly. My throat felt sore and shaky "W-what's-"

I choked as Lara's foot came down on my stomach.

 _Hurts_.

"How dare you call me that." I heard Lara hiss, through the haze of agony spreading up through my ribs. Oh god, even Mathias and his cult had never hit me that hard.

"Lara…" I forced out. "W-what are you talking… about?

"Still playing dumb?" Lara asked. Her affect was so _flat_ , like a slab of polished marble. Like she just didn't _care_ anymore.

I could only watch through the curtain of rain as her other hand came up and cocked her pistol.

The _swish_ - _click_ echoed in my ears, and I could feel my heart pounding out of control.

I stared at her, unable to speak.

Lara looked down at me, feet spread, one hand cupping the bottom of her gun, other arm straight. It was a classic firing stance, and I was the target. Even seeing her finger, still resting 'safely' on the trigger guard, could do nothing to quell my rising dread.

I knew it wouldn't even slow her down for a second, if she decided to end me.

"Lara… please?" I whispered, shivering. "I really have no idea… what you're talking about. Please, just tell me what's going on?"

Was that… a flicker of doubt? Oh god let it have been _doubt_. Please, Lara, whatever you think is happening isn't worth _shooting me_ over!

But then I saw it happen. The way her gaze evened out, her eyes flashing with… resolve, no with the decision to see this through, and like a bad movie I could already see the ending.

N-no. It couldn't end like this. I could still stop her from shooting me right? If not words then a strong gust of wind, a lash of rain, something… something would-!

But… I shouldn't be lying to myself at a time like this right?

Wind… rain? Worse than useless right now. Lara had fought her way through an army during a blizzard. Any attempts at inclement weather would just make her shoot me faster, before Lara would even consider risking that I might throw off her aim.

For a second I even thought about calling down that bolt of lightning I promised earlier. I'd spear it right through her chest and into the rooftop at the speed of light, not a moment to react.

But- but even before I saw that fantasy through, I knew I couldn't bear to do it. Not to _Lara_.

So I let go of the frenetic energy I'd started to shape; the storm was thematic enough without my interference.

And I closed my eyes.

I guess… that I shouldn't be surprised that my end is nothing more than another part of the tragic backstory.

I'm not the main character, I get that! But, I had hoped that after Yamatai… maybe I'd qualified for a strong supporting role.

God what am I doing, in my last moments I'm comparing my life to a soap?

That's just-

The gun fired. It cut through my thoughts like a knife, rattling like thunder in my chest.

The rain tasted like salt on my lips.

And then… nothing.

… No I mean _nothing_ nothing. There was no wave of agony as my body realized it had been shot, no rising darkness or failing of breath.

Just the pitter patter of rain.

I… would be seriously disappointed… if this actually turned out to be heaven.

Though I guess I probably qualified for purgatory?

Now wasn't really the time for that, though.

I opened my eyes with a shudder, glancing up at Lara. Or at least I think that was the plan. My brain… sort of flash froze when I saw the gun, smoke still leaking from that inky black barrel.

For a second I was sure that there would be a second shot; that somehow Lara had _missed_.

I whimpered. Scrunching my eyes shut again.

"Oh my god." I heard Lara whisper. What, now she's worried? Is she hung up over her awful accuracy?! Just get it over with, stop yanking me around like this! Three times in the chest is definitely worse than once in the head!

"I- Sam, I! I'm so sorry! I'm so, _so_ sorry!" Lara said.

I heard something clatter to the ground, and then she was grabbing my arms. I staggered as she hauled me onto my feet, blinking in surprise.

Lara was… hugging me.

I gasped, shoving. With a choked sob I staggered out of her grasp.

"Sam!" Lara said, face crumpling? No, you don't get to look like that! I'm the one who was almost shot, not you!

"Sam! I'm sorry! I swear I- I just had to make sure!" Lara said. She took a step towards me and I staggered away on instinct. "I just had to know for sure, Sam." Lara continued frantically. "I. You started messing with the weather, Sam, Please, you have to understand." She lunged forward, I almost shrieked when she grabbed my hand.

"I had to make sure you weren't Himiko!"

I slapped her.

I half ran, half stumbled to the door, slamming into the frame as I spun around.

"That… That's your reason!?" I choked out. "You almost _shot_ me! You couldn't have fucking _asked?!_ "

Lara shook her head, spraying water in an arc. "No, Sam, I'd never-!" She tried to corner me again, hands reaching out like-

"Don't touch me!" I screamed. I felt the wind howl alongside me, gathering and lashing out like a physical blow. Lara was pushed back, safely out of reach, and I could finally find the strength to fucking _breathe_.

I glared at her.

A part of me could almost feel satisfied when she flinched. If only my heart wasn't still trying to tear itself out of my chest from the panic.

"Sam… please…" Lara whispered.

I forced myself upright, pushing a step off the doorframe.

"I said please too."

Then I turned and fled down the stairs.

I only wish my footsteps had echoed loudly enough to drown out the sound of Lara calling my name.

 **Interlude: The First and Last**

The Soul is not discrete.

That is perhaps the most important, and also the most astounding truth I have discovered in my studies of the spiritual. But then, it should come as no surprise that the world of the kami follows different laws than the physical realms.

The Ritual of Ascension was based on this holistic principle of being. Simply put, even when the soul is in two places, or stretched impossibly between two points, two _bodies_ , it is no less complete for being 'separated'. A person's essence of being cannot be rendered into anything less than its entirety.

The body may falter and fail, as do all things in the mortal plane, but the soul is inviolate.

I once thought myself a genius for unlocking the spiritual medium. A visionary with knowledge beyond the scope of the philosophers and priests of my time, only to find myself trapped behind the bars of my own creation, until my crumbling body could only serve as a locus for my power.

For one so blessed as I, my fate was a bitter pill to swallow. Surely it is little wonder that I raged. Even now I wish that I only had the strength to finish what that pitiable man had almost brought to fruition on the mountain top.

The taste of sunlight on my skin once more, I could have wept but to have such a chance. Instead, the daughter of my blood was rescued by her retainer. A woman with such poise, determination, and loyalty that, had she been in my possession as she should have been, my empire would never have fallen.

I can only laugh, knowing that my greatest weakness was and has always been my _subjects_. A daughter too blinded by fear to see our greater purpose, a general who would rather die in disgrace than redeem his own failure, and a cultist too sure of victory to reap anything other than _defeat_.

And so, this comedy of errors has brought me here, once again trapped in a prison of my own devising, with none to blame but my own blind hope, now… quenched after centuries of dreaming.

There is no chance for escape any longer. But even in failure I have found one last breakthrough. I have uncovered one more _truth_ about the nature of the soul, of our very _being_. And perhaps… given the proper tools, I may be able to parlay that into something more.

The body, as I had long ago discovered, is the vessel of the soul. A cup, filled with ephemeral water. In the ritual of ascension, I would take another's cup, and replace their 'water' with my own, overtaking their vessel.

But like any vessel, when the body is broken, the soul, which I once thought to be so indivisible, flows out into the abyss of death.

And that is what happened to me.

Any other interruption would have been tenable, but the true death of my vessel severed my soul in a way I thought impossible, casting the vast majority of my power into the grave, with only this tiny piece of me ensconced within this daughter of my blood.

Still 'all of me', in that I am 'whole' and my memories undiminished, my powers unimpeded. But somehow, maddeningly, _less_ than what I once was.

There are no words to capture how mutilated I have become. That I am still coherent in my wraith-like state is a testament to that same immutable nature of the soul, trumped only, it seems, by death.

 _Death_.

It has dropped a veil over me, through which I cannon peer. I can feel it wrapping around me slowly, like the embrace of a typhoon. I know what this means, the soul cannot stay divided, it is against its nature. And though I have gained yet another reprieve from death, my current state is no more than that, a temporary reprieve.

I will soon die in my entirety. In a way, I almost welcome it, even as I wish I could find some way to turn this… this _indignity_ to my favor. For at least, once I die, I will be complete again, beyond the pains of the disloyal flesh which plagued me for so long, and free from the even greater agonies of the spirit that consume my new existence. Any outcome is preferable to this cursed life.

But the agony is existential, if anything, it only sharpens the clarity of my thoughts. It gives me focus, and the determination to see this through to the end.

Pain is nothing, I will not let it stand in the way of my greatness.

My rage, as well, is a non-entity. I feel the coals of resentment nestling in my breast, against both _Samantha Nishimura_ and her gaijin. But such anger serves no purpose. Should I squander my wrath and call down a single bolt of lightning from the heavens to end them?

Perhaps if that fool Mathaias was still alive, I would consider such a pointless waste. Instead, I must turn my attention to worthier goals.

Now, one stage removed from my bodily prison, I find myself more able to examine the reality of the situation.

Had the ritual succeeded, I would have found myself Queen of Nothing. My empire had _become_ nothing more than a ruin, torn down by the storms of my rage. And my follows? They too had become _nothing._ Simple brutes, wearing the trappings of discipline, and beholden to the thrice damned Oni who promised me eternity and never once deigned to mention the ultimate _cost_.

Oh, reincarnation would indeed be _preferable_. For with a youthful form once more, I have no doubt I could have rebuilt my empire a thousandfold greater than it had been. The mistakes of the past would have only served to sharpen my prowess, and the world would have learned of my name.

But… I find that this outcome is… almost as satisfying.

My kingdom, full of subjects who had failed me for so long, now reduced to rubble and corpses. I can find some small measure of glee in that.

Let there be no kingdom without its Queen.

So I will set aside my rage at the daughter of my blood and her loyal retainer. If anything, I actually find myself _pleased_ that my descendant should have such a faithful companion. She will serve her purpose well I have no doubt.

If only _that_ foolish girl had been half so _obedient_.

Even still, while I had always been plagued by the weakness of those around me, I would now capitalize on their _strength_.

 _Samantha Nishimura_ has a strong soul, one that would fare well against whatever tribulations that would rise before her, I am sure. She has the soul of a queen, perhaps in time she may even grow to equal me.

And thus, I will lay the first stones of her kingdom.

It is fitting, I think, for my last action to be something meaningful, something lasting. My previous works, my temples, my shrines, my palace, are gone now. But I will create something even greater to replace them.

Would it be my own kingdom. But maybe if the Buddhists were right, I shall have a chance at that in another life. Though, I doubt my soul, so mangled as it is in word and in deed, will be fit for the cycle of reincarnation.

Yet my ultimate fate does not preclude this moment. Death will _never_ eclipse me entirely. And even if I must surrender my soul, I will ensure that I live on. If not as myself, than as a gift carried by my descendants.

My only regret is that I will not last to see what miracles this girl will accomplish. I have great hopes, great hopes indeed.

But where, I wonder, shall I place my hand?

Indecision is not becoming of a queen, but haste and imprudence are even more gauche. There are many gifts I could bestow upon this daughter of my blood. But to make a poor choice would be tantamount to suicide.

I have not held on for so long, only to falter now.

So, it would take time, and careful deliberation besides, to come up with the perfect gift.

As a matter of course, it would have to be something permanent, something intrinsic to _Samantha Nishimura_. No other action would have the requisite impact.

Thus, it would have to be something etched upon her very soul.

Is it not fitting, that this last work of mine be a challenge of finesse rather than raw power?

That it will undoubtedly cause her suffering is naught else but royal justice.

 **2.3**

Somehow I made it to a bar.

It was loud, and hot, and crowded. The drinks were overpriced, and the acrid smell of nicotine lingered in the air. In short, it was exactly what I was looking for.

Something _familiar_ after… almost getting shot by my best friend.

With a groan, I sagged into the nearest empty bar stool. "Just bring me some vodka." I told the bar tender.

"One of those days?" He asked. I just slid my credit card down the bar in his direction.

"Just… get me some shots." I said. I needed alcohol right now, not impersonal sympathy. "And open a tab."

"Sure, sure." Was the reply. Shortly after, three small glasses filled with clear liquid slid down the counter towards me. "Just shout if you want more."

I was too busy downing the first shot to reply.

The vodka burned sweet down my throat and its siblings quickly joined it. I sighed as the borrowed warmth of alcohol filled me up, pushing back the lingering depression, for a heartbeat anyway.

God, I hated drinking alone. What's the point of getting shitfaced if there's no one to share the experience with?

I handed over my credit card in exchange for more alcohol, the way this night was going, I'd probably need it…

Okay, in hindsight, I _may_ have picked the worst way to do my big reveal. Actually given the evidence, namely me almost getting fucking ganked by a brit with a glock, I _knew_ that I'd messed up. But really, how _else_ was I supposed to 'come out of the closet'?

Do it fast like a band-aid. Half a dozen breakups with needy boyfriends had taught me as much.

And yes, I knew this issue was way more sensitive than Joe Schmoe who couldn't accept that his girlfriend had a life outside of his fucking football games, but god damn it what _life experience_ was supposed to prepare me for the 'so you know that immortal mummy I killed? I kinda have her powers because she tried to possess me, but don't freak out I'm still me' speech? iZombie!?

I slumped deeper into my barstool as I processed _that_ wave of bitter regret. It came with a side of rum and coke though.

Still not worth it.

All I wanted to do was _avoid_ that stupid trope where… well, where this exact situation happened.

In fact, I was probably playing into it by running away to a bar, but… but it _hurt_. And I'm not talking about the still stinging wetness at the back of my skull.

That Lara hadn't even paused for a second, that she'd just taken me down like I was one more Solari grunt, and it was only my pretty face that bought me a reprieve- that just made me want to shrivel up in a ball somewhere and cry.

I wasn't even _remotely_ drunk enough to handle this bull.

"Hey, Bartender! Get me another round!"

…

I was halfway through building a little pyramid out of shot glasses when my phone started buzzing. Not going to lie, it took longer than I'm proud of to work it out of my pocket (curse you skinny jeans) and hit the accept button.

The world around me swayed as I held it up to my ear, like the dull pulsing in my head was messing with my sense of balance. "He-hello?" I managed.

No, not _managed_. That was a solid hello, especially given that I was drunk.

"Sam… I'm sorry."

I blinked. Lara was calling me? That was fast… wait, I checked my watch, okay that was definitely fast.

Usually a blow up _this_ big would mean at least a day of quiet sulking before she worked up the nerve to call someone. The para-paradig… the change put me on edge.

"Lara?" I asked. Then I winced. I hadn't meant to sound so hopeful, but well…

"I don't know what to do, or to say to make this better." Lara continued. I could barely hear her over the noise, the _chatter_. "But, Sam, please believe me when I say that I never wanted to hurt you. I was just… so _scared_. I-"

I grit my teeth at a particularly loud shout assaulted my ears, almost drowning Lara out. "You… you had to make sure." I said, before I realized I was almost shouting to hear myself over the noise.

No, this conversation was not happening in here. I pushed off the bar, wobbling slightly as I tried to get out of the bar. The chairs were too close as I weaved my way to the door, but the promise of cool air, and enough quite to actually _think_ drove me on.

The outside… _ness_ of the street hit me like a physical blow, and I staggered to a halt. Vaguely I realized that I was clutching my phone tight enough to hurt. "I… I get it." I whispered, trying to focus through the dull ache that was building in my skull.

Staggering out into the pouring rain, I felt myself just… give in, sluming downwards a little bit as I leaned against a nearby wall. This day had just been too… everything, for me to stand up straight with any degree of regularity.

"It was dumb of me wasn't it." I mumbled quietly into the phone. "Just dumping it on you like that. God how was I so _stupid_ , of course-"

"No!" Lara's voice came back over the line, crackling with the volume behind it. My head throbbed once in response. "No, Sam, Sam, it- none of it was your fault. Don't… don't you _dare_ blame yourself for how I reacted, like an unconscionable brute." That last part was muttering in self-recrimination. "This was all my fault. I'm sorry, Sam. I really truly am."

I sighed at that, pushing myself away from the wall. "Look at us." I said. "We're practically falling over ourselves trying to apologize." Despite myself I felt a small and weary smile forming on my lips. I shook my head, glancing out towards the street in search of a taxi.

"Let's go back to the apartment, okay Sweetie?" I said, after a moment of silent deliberation. "I- no _we_ need to… to just _talk_ , okay?" I guess time and distance had given me some perspective, or at least enough flipping common sense to realize that, like a bad film plot, all of these problems could be solved if Lara and I just sat down and talked about-

"I'm afraid that I'm… not going to be at the hotel." Lara said.

My thoughts, screeched to a halt.

Oh no. Oh no, no, _no._ We were _not_ doing this right after I'd had my most recent revelation about the power of verbal communication! That, that's-!

"Sweetie." I said, a type of sickly sweetness that I'd only ever heard my mother use filling my voice (it's good to be self-aware of these things). "I'm _sure_ I just misheard you."

I'm fairly sure I heard an intake breath, which gave me a moment of hope.

Of course, that was before common sense caught up to me, because even though I'd never met _Lady_ Croft, I knew that if Lara had ever stood up to _her_ as a child (making no mention of queen Zombie face the grotesque) then _I_ certainly had no chance of changing her mind.

But that didn't stop my foolish, _foolish_ , heart from hoping, for one _scant_ second, that Lara would see reason.

"I said." She replied slowly, weighing every syllable "that I am not going to be at the hotel."

But then again, if Lara was the type of girl to see 'reason', we probably never would have made if off that island in the first place.

I felt a type of calm settle over me then. The type of razor sharp clarity that cut through my building headache and my still jumbled emotions like a knife.

"You're going to the airport aren't you." I said, but I wasn't really asking. Already I was moving towards the curb, frantically waving for a taxi. I would _not_ be left behind dammit!

"I… yes. I am" Lara said. Well, at least she had the good grace to sound apologetic, like it made everything _so much better!_

Finally a cab came to a stop in front of me, and I practically tore the door off of its hinges as I climbed inside. " _JFK International!"_ I hissed at the driver. _"And step on it!"_

Then I turned my attention back to the actually important conversation. "Lara. You don't want to do this."

I heard a sigh. "You're right, you know." She said softly. "I really don't. But it's still the right thing to do."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to push aside the constant throbbing. _Amaterasu_ but was this girl not stubborn. "No it's not!" I barely held myself back from shouting. This was just beyond the pale. "Please, Lara, don't do this! I just want to fucking _talk_!"

"We are talking, Sam." She said. "And we can talk. But I refuse to put you in danger again. Whether that danger comes from my surroundings or… or from _me_. I will not subject you to it."

No, that was _not_ an acceptable answer. "Lara Croft." I said, gripping my phone so tight I could practically hear the case _creak_. "If you do this, I swear by those _on high_ and _below_ , that I will never _ever_ forgive you."

There was silence, and for a second I was scared that she'd just hung up on me, or thrown the phone away, or-

"That's fine." She whispered. "It's nothing less than what I deserve."

"No, Lara, that's-!"

But the beeping of an ended call was all that I heard.

I swore, throwing my phone onto the floor of the taxi.

This was just, no, ugh, _kuso!_ _Kono baka onna no ko!_

I started rocking backing and forth in the back seat, pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes as waves of pain throbbed through my skull.

I. Did not. Need. _This!_

Curling up, I focused on pushing it all away once more, on figuring out what I needed to _do_. Of course, I'd never tried to make a to do list with someone driving nine inch nails into my temples but there's a _first time for everything_.

With a groan, I forced myself to open my eyes. Of course, the sight of being absolutely _submerged_ in traffic did nothing for my mood, or my budding migraine. I held back another groan. "How long until we get to the airport." I asked the driver.

Another day, at another time, I might have winced at how harsh my voice sounded, but right now I was just glad that it got me the answer faster.

"Uh- at least twenty minutes." He said. "You know, Traffic-?"

I let out a breath, "Thanks," I said. This time I forced myself to sound like a normal human being, but I was already thinking about other things. Sagging back in my chair, I let the waves of mental agony wash over me.

I never knew thinking could be _this_ hard, but I'd never needed to _think_ as badly as I needed to right now.

Come on Sam, you're better than this. How much _real_ pain did Lara go through on Yamatai to get you back?

I winced as my fake pain spiked, before trying to force my way past it.

Need a way to get to Lara. I need a way to get into the airport.

Where would she be? She'd go… somewhere far away. England, or just… anywhere. So… I had to get into the _kokusai_ terminal.

With a grunt, I fumbled around for my phone. Gods I already regretting throwing it, but at least, I had thirty minutes.

Silver linings.

I opened up the messages with my travel agent. One step at a time. What did you need Sam? You need to get it, which means… you need a ticket.

With shaking fingers I typed: 'need tkct frm jfk internation term dont car where 2, 4 2day'

I clicked send.

Next problem. I… needed to stop Lara from leaving. She was getting on… hikouki ni noru tsumori… so…

Well, if planes couldn't fly, she couldn't go anywhere right?

This time though, I let myself groan.

But I knew what I had to do.

My headache spiked again as I reached up towards the storm. I sank my fingers _into_ its swirling energetic mass, and _pulled._

The feedback rocked me in my seat, sending stars through my eyes, but overhead, the thunder rumbled.

When I finally worked up the strength to look out the window I couldn't even see the car next to us in the torrential rain.

Good.

Just… keep it right there… until I got to Lara.

The rest of the ride passed in an agonizing haze. I had my hands permanently locked over my eyes, trying to shut out any ambient light, even as I stoked the storm overhead with my powers.

At one point, my phone buzzed from a text, and I forced myself to look at it long enough to read the notification. Something about a flight to… somewhere with a B.

I couldn't muster the energy to pay attention after that point. As long as the travel agent had done his job and gotten me a fucking boarding pass it could have been to Antarctica for all I was able to care…

I almost fell off the bench when the taxi finally jerked to a stop in from of the airport terminal. When the cabby started to talk I just threw a hundred at him, even managed something about… not needing change, as I staggered out into the rain.

Inside… had to get inside.

My head was swimming, I swear I just missed the wall as I forced my way through the doors, but I was almost there. Just a bit further.

There were the check in desk things. Just… five more steps Sam.

Each time my foot hit the ground another lance of pain stabbed into my skull.

But I could handle five more.

Four more.

Three.

 _Ni_.

I slipped on the smooth tile floor, slumping over onto the desk.

For a moment my hands scrabbled against the surface, I think I saw the attendant's shocked expression. Then I was on the ground, looking up at the blinding white light.

Then the pain, which had already grown to encompass my entire being, spiked to new heights.

I heard someone scream.

And then, sweet, _blessed_ , darkness.

 **2.4**

I've heard people say that it's disconcerting to wake up without knowing where you are. But that's never really bothered me.

Maybe it's just, you know, familiarity. I've been smashed enough times that waking up in a weird place was pretty much an inevitable. Even if I've never enjoyed being black out drunk, there were just some times when imbibing that much alcohol was necessary. Or at least that's what the college me thought at the time.

Nights like that usually lead to mornings staring at unfamiliar ceilings, occasionally with some hunky guy (because even half blind, I had standards) snoring next to me. It was, as far as I was concerned, just part of the college experience.

Even on Yamatai, waking up without knowing where I was never frightened me. It was only after realizing the situation that I'd been scared.

Point being, I really never understood the momentary fear about waking up without knowing _where_ I was.

Today though, I woke up without knowing _who_ I was.

I don't mean it like my head was foggy, or that I was still stuck half inside a dream. Nothing so benign.

Nothing so easy.

I woke up with two sets of memories in my head, two different goals in my sight, two different names on my tongue. For a second, I didn't know if I was Sam, remembering Himiko, or Himiko, remembering Sam.

Yeah, I was scared.

I think that fear - hyperventilation, galloping heart, the work - was what snapped me out of it. Only one set of the memories, Sam's – _mine_ – matched with my thoughts _now_. And that's when I came back to myself, like the tail end of a bad trip.

Not something I was eager to repeat. But I understood why it had happened, and why it hadn't really been avoidable.

Ah, yeah. That was the other thing. After I'd calm down enough to actually think, I wasn't really confused by all of this.

I already knew what was going on, because I remembered setting it in motion.

I could remember how this… memory transfer had occurred. I understood it like I understood camera, or lighting. The memories were, for lack of a better word, completely organic.

I guess I should have been happy about that. I wouldn't have to spend the next week quietly panicking about passing out in the middle of the airport, about having the memories of my many times great grandmother, or about not being _me_ anymore.

Given that I'd just spent my last few hours of consciousness complaining about the lack of proper communication, this really did make a nice change. I would just have preferred that this surprising bout of honesty had come from someone _other_ than the woman who'd tried to take over my body.

What was even more frightening was that now I understood why she'd chosen this path. And even as I told myself that I would _never_ steal someone else's life, someone else's _body_ … I could feel the temptation.

Eternal life, at my fingertips. If I hadn't already seen how horrible it was from the other side, maybe I would even consider it.

I couldn't stop myself from wincing at that. Maybe I shouldn't spend so much time thinking about her twisted mentality.

Himiko was gone. There was no reason for me to become her younger, better looking clone.

I sighed, opening my eyes.

This felt like The _Giver._ And dear _god,_ I hated that book.

With all the shit I'd been going through lately, the last thing I needed was an entire lifetime of memories. Especially since, in this context, 'lifetime' meant a span of years _considerably_ longer than _I'd_ been alive.

Ugh, old women were supposed to be sensitive about their age.

And just in case that wasn't enough of a burden for me, she'd also been sure to include a grand total of zero happy memories. There were no tea ceremonies or elaborate kimonos or secret gardens with hunky suitors. Just business, business, business.

This is how you control storms, Sam. This is how you make ofuda, Sam. This is how you properly instill the fear of god in your vassals, Sam.

I felt like I was being lectured.

Amaterasu's light, couldn't she at least have been _subtle_ about it? She hadn't even tried to conceal what her goal was, left that helpful little memory about deciding that I was a fitting enough _heir_ – saying nothing about her standards for being trapped on an island as a corpse – and that I was going to rebuild her kingdom.

No. Just… just _no_.

There was no way in hell that I would ever even consider following in my countless times great grandmother's footsteps, ancestors be _damned_.

And to top it all off-!

I choked back a sob. But I could stop myself from looking to the chairs next to my hospital bed.

The empty chairs.

I slumped.

And to top it _all off_ … Lara _still_ left. She was _still_ gone. I had made a _hurricane_ to keep her grounded, but I knew the moment I opened my eyes that it hadn't been enough.

There had been a stillness to the air, one that couldn't exist in the presence of any living person.

I'd _known_ that no one was there. But I hadn't believed it. Not until I worked up the courage to look over and see with my own eyes.

Lara… Lara could really put those old Aztecs to shame, when she set her mind to it.

I clenched my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut so hard I saw colors. I choked on my sobs and made fists so tight that warm red blood dripped down my fingers.

In the background, I could even hear my pulse monitor spike.

The clouds outside morphed into a storm.

There was a flash of lighting right outside my window.

This, this just wasn't… fair.

I let the rain pour down upon the land, and I cried.

 **2.5**

When I woke up I was calm.

Well no, that's a lie. Like, I really, really, wasn't calm. I was spent. I was a thunderhead that had challenged a mountain. I had no more energy left to use on things like screaming or crying.

Instead, I stared at the ceiling. I attempted to plot, but I think I didn't really accomplish much but some less than kosher 'revenge' fantasies about what I'd do once I finally found Lara again. Believe me, tongue lashings would be the _least_ of her problems.

I was gonna make her dress up as my maid for a week, _at least_.

But yes, I'd already decided that I was going to find Lara.

I refused to sit around like a damsel, waiting for her to finally get it through her thick head that we were _friends_. I was going to track her down and force her to realize just how badly she'd fucked up here.

It was actually kinda funny – you know if you too tired to _cry_ – that Himiko had thought of Lara as my loyal retainer or something just as pompous. She'd missed the mark on that one.

Lara had her own Crusade. And apparently I was just baggage she didn't want to lug around while trying to find that evanescent truth she wanted so much.

But there was nothing that I could do about it while I was stuck here in the hospital. Of course, finder her would take some doing no matter what. All I had to go off of was some vague idea of Croatia, and if I knew Lara (something that was _clearly_ less certain that I liked) then she'd probably go to half a dozen other countries for some reason or another before she even wound up in Eastern Europe.

And even Croatia had a lot of ground to cover, with no leads and no idea where to start.

Well… at least I wasn't in one of those hideous hospital gowns.  
Now if I could just get my phone I would be somewhere.

I grumbled as a quick search of my pockets turned up nothing. I riffled through the contents of the bedside cabinet… thing, but I really wasn't surprised when that turned up nothing except spare bandages.

Damn hospitals and their habit of putting peoples' belongings somewhere 'safe'.

I didn't have time to waste on this bullcrap, that wasn't a thing. But having my phone was a necessity.

The delays would be the death of me, I swear.

But anyway, plans. Yes. The first step was getting my things back. With that in mind, I pressed the call button and pasted on my best dopy I-just-woke-up expression. It was annoying that I had to act like this, but sometimes it's best just to let people see what they're expecting to see.

Not gonna lie, I was even more annoyed when it took the nurse more than _ten minutes_ to get around to me. Not like I might actually need something important, right? Forget half asleep, by that point it took more effort than I'd like to admit just to keep a pleasant smile on my face.

I never thought I'd be grateful for learning how to put up with people like Whitman.

"Oh good, you're awake." Was what the nurse, a woman to suit the stereotype I guess, said to me when she came in the room.

I smiled politely, letting her first wave of questions just flow past me like a river. Yes I was feeling fine, yes I knew where I was, yes I remembered what had happened.

Yes, yes, yes!

And not in the fun way either, but seriously, can we get to _my_ questions?

"Was there something you needed? A glass of water maybe."

Ah at long last, here is the Promised Land.

I dug deep for that sheepish smile I used. "Yeah um, actually, do you think you tell me where my things are? I should probably make some calls."

"Don't you think that can wait for a bit, dear?" She said. "The doctors wanted to have a look at you before anything like that. We're still not quite sure what caused your episode."

I think I actually could have laughed.

Instead I just smiled, letting my eyes drift shut in that quintessential anime smile. "No I don't think it can actually." I replied. "See, Daddy's the worrying type. And considering that the last time I disappeared I ended up stranded on an island populated by crazies with guns, well…"

If only I could have filmed her reaction shot, a new meme would have been born.

I could see the exact moment when she made the connection, glancing down at my chart to confirm that (once again) _yes_ my name was indeed Samantha Nishimura, and _yes_ I had some residual injuries in some rather strange places for the average twenty something year old socialite.

Perhaps now that the gears were turning… "So could I get my phone at least?" I said. "I promise not to overdo it."

Because, you know, cell phones are highly prone to causing seizures. Or whatever the hell the eggheads at this hospital thought had happened to me. I'm sure if they bothered with a CAT scan my brain would have _looked_ like someone was trying to jumpstart a car.

But of course it was too much to expect the scientific community to know anything about soul resonance.

There may have been a stammered apology in their somewhere, I was just happy when she finally came back, promptly this time, with my cell and my wallet. I thanked her, and then made a call.

Five minutes later I was walking out of the hospital and into a waiting taxi cab.

What? It's not like it was a prison or anything. Their security does leave just a little bit to be desired.

Now, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

"Take me to the closest internet café would you?" I said to the driver. To be completely honest, Lara probably could be (or be on a plane _to_ ) just about anywhere in the world right now. I would need to do some research, maybe even get in touch with a PI.

I was just worried that something like that would take far too long before turning up anything useful. Given that, I was probably best just going with my gut instinct, and a few educated guesses.

That's what deduction is, right Sherlock?

Thankfully, this cab ride ended with less anguish than my last one. The internet café on the other hand, was pretty much a disaster.

Well, the décor, anyway. Good thing I was only there for the high speed connection, because really, with a paint job right out of Soul Train the owners couldn't have anything _else_ they were selling.

A quick check of the news didn't turn up any leads. No "well dressed brunette saves airline from suicide bombing attempt". I on the other hand, had made headlines. In a sense anyway.

Last night's 'freak storm' was on everybody's minds.

But for Lara there was pretty much nothing useful. With some fast talking and creative googling I'd been able to find a list of flights out of JFK since yesterday afternoon, including my random one to Buenos Aires. But even if I only looked at internationals that was still far too much ground to cover.

I sighed, glancing out the window. People were starting to fill up the streets now.

It was what, I checked the computer clock, eight thirty? I'd probably been here for about an hour then, with not much to show for it. But still, there had to be some way to figure out her next destination.

I glanced down the list, marking destinations that _could_ potentially be her first stop.

Nepal, China, Argentina, Ukraine, London-

I pursed my lips at the last one.

Maybe? Lara… Lara had always been a big fan of being prepared. And if she was running off to confront her parents' legacy, well.

Croft Manor in Surrey would be a pretty damn good place to start.

A quick check of the BBC's website revealed some political unrest over some politicians taking bribes, Prince Phillip in the hospital or some such. Oh! Looks like they passed the same sex marriage bill. Well that's nice.

Ah, here we go.

Recent excavations revealing a new side of 'Camelot'…

Most archeologists still skeptical… New underground chambers found at Cadburry Castle… unrest in the nearby township… current evidence places this as a strongest contender for the mythical 'Camelot'… previously buried vaults… possible location of Excalibur.

Yes. No way in hell Lara would be able to ignore something like this, especially since she probably needed to go back to her Manor anyway.

And to top it all off looks like this year's solstice gathering thing at Stone Henge was promising to be a real doozy. Looks like the recent excavations had lit a fire under the normally conservative Englishman.

I did a cursory glance over the other places Lara might have gone, but nothing else really stood out. So I guess it was London or throwing some darts at a map and hoping for the best.

I frowned at that for a moment. Divination… was a possibility. But Himiko had never much bothered with it. I remembered a priestess enacting some ritual to Omoikane, asking for guidance and wise choices. But _finding_ someone? No that was very much a western discipline, and one that Himiko had never much bothered with.

I laughed humorlessly, why bother looking for someone when you could just command them to be brought before you.

I booked a flight.

By now I've traveled enough that the details are all kinda the same to me. I went through security with one carry on, grabbed a bite to eat at eat at McDonalds, it was the same no matter where you went.

I settled myself in the cramped 'economy class' chair (Buisness class had been booked, much to my dismay) that I would be sitting in for the next seven and a half hours of my life and flipped on the news.

I shot a quick text to Daddy before shutting my phone off for the flight.

Several hours later, the plane finally touched down at Heathrow, much to my relief.

I'd gotten used to the much cushier accommodations that first class flights offered, maybe a bit too used to them… My legs were so _sore_.

It was another long wait until I finally got out into the aisle, and then the concourse, and then to the streets of London proper.

I turned back on my phone; and then I promptly dropped it.

You know that thing that happens, the one where you get a ton of texts all at once and your phone starts vibrating off the hook? Yeah that.

I stared down at it, and I'm sure there must have been a weird look on my face, as it continued to vibrate for the next ten seconds.

Thank god I went and bought one of those indestructible phone cases I guess?

Gingerly, I picked it back up, flicking open my message history.

Who one earth could have possible been texting me so-

Oh. Oh, no.

I uhm, really?

 _Really?  
_  
This... this could be very, very bad. For me.

With a wince, I pressed the call back button, and held the phone up to my ear.

It rang once.

"Sam! Where the bloody hell are you!?"

This was very, very bad.

I think I let out a strangled giggle. "Ah… sweetie. Uh, what do you mean?"

"You up and vanished out of the hospital! What do you think I mean!"

"Well… uhm." I wilted. "You weren't there?"

I could practically hear the dumbstruck expression on the other side of the line. Honestly, it hadn't been _that_ bad of a decision had it?

"So you checked out of the hospital." Lara started. Her voice was dead quiet. I struggled not to shiver.

"More like walked-"

" _Sam_."

I winced again. "Uh, yes."

"And you went looking for me." Uh oh, Lara was working herself up into a frenzy now…

"... Yes."

"And, for some reason, you decided to turn _off_ your _phone_."

I gulped. "Well… I was on a plane."

Once again, silence.

"Sam, where are you?" Left unspoken was the 'so I can go there and drag you back by your pixie cut'.

I looked down at the sidewalk. The _English_ sidewalk. Dear god was this actually happening? "I… um. I'm in London." I said.

"London."

"I thought you'd go to investigate thing at Camelot?" I offered weakly.

"The what now?"

Oh come on, you can't tell me that I'd been wrong about that one too!


	3. Zephyr

**Zephyr**

 **3.1**

So after twelve hours and a restless night, I was _finally_ able down with Lara and talk.

We were at a small cafe in London that came with a complimentary view of the Thames. And tea, can't forget the tea. I'd asked for some Earl Grey, mainly because that was the only type of tea I could name.

Lara, for her part, had skipped out on her own cultural heritage and instead ordered an Irish Coffee, which she proceeded to pour down her throat she wanted to be drunk yesterday. Given that's more or less where'd I'd been two days ago, I could sympathize.

I swear, the parallels between us were just uncanny sometimes.

I'd ordered a 'cuppa', but hadn't touched it since stirring in a spoonful of sugar. I just watch the wisps of steam gently float up off its surface, dissipating into air.

With a thunk, Lara set her mug down on the wooden table. She didn't say anything. After a moment I glanced back down at my tea.

Wisp. Wisp.

Maybe if I sat here long enough we'd skip the painful breakup and get right to the tearful reunion. Because, seriously, haven't we already gotten through the 'Girl loses Girl' part of this arc?

As if on cue Lara shifted. Our eyes met.

She opened her mouth, brow furrowing into a darker expression.

"Okay, no," I said, cutting off her tirade before it could even begin. "You don't get to be mad at me for this. You _do not_ have any ground to stand."

Lara glanced away "That was different."

I nodded, sitting up straighter in my chair. "Of course it was," I shot back. " _I_ had a reason."

"Oh and I didn't?"

I shrugged. "Not a good one."

Lara actually looked offended at that, but I stood my ground. "How kind," She said. "Considering I just flew across an ocean to make sure you were all right."

"And I guess we're just forgetting the reason I flew across said ocean in the first place, right?"

Lara didn't reply.

I sighed, slumping slightly. "Sweetie, I…" I shook my head. "I don't want to fight over this. I made a mistake, okay? But please, _please_ , don't try to pin this whole mess on me."

Lara quirked her lips at that.

"Look," I said. "How did it feel? When you checked the hospital and I wasn't there, and I hadn't checked out, and I wasn't answering my phone?"

She deflated, all of that prickly pride evaporating like morning mist.

But maybe harsh reality was what this situation needed.

When she realized that it wasn't a rhetorical question, she sighed. "It felt like," Lara said "It felt like… everything was meaningless, and that maybe it would have been better if I'd just rolled over and died after all."

I swallowed thickly "Yeah," I agreed "yeah it did didn't it."

Then Lara looked at me again. Except, maybe (hopefully), this time she actually saw me. Not the damsel in distress she needed to save, not the hated remnant of Himiko, but me. Samantha Nishimura.

"Oh, Sam," She said softly "I'm so sorry."

"You keep saying that," I replied, looking away "but I don't want an apology. I want a promise."

"Sam, I-"

" _Please_ , Lara," I said, looking back to her even as I tried to keep from crying "I can't- I can't go through that again. Please don't make me go through that again…"

Lara didn't reply right away, she just looked at me. Slowly, I lowered my gaze, glancing up at her through my lashes.

Please, Lara, please, please, please.

Instead of answering she reached out and snagged my tea, taking a long sip.

"Fine." She said.

I did a little dance in my seat. I won't deny it.

"Saaaam."

"Sorry, not sorry!"

After a moment, she chuckled in that affable British way of hers. "If you embarrass me anymore I'm sending you back."

"Why, Lara Croft, you wound me!" I said, grinning even wider. " _I_ embarrass you? Perish the thought!"

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, that's enough." She said. "Now tell me what you were saying about Camelot, or whatever, before I come to my senses."

"Ah, yeah." I nodded, settling back into my chair.

It' was probably a good thing I hadn't had any of that tea, the last thing I needed right now was another energy spike. I tried (and failed) to stifle another grin.

"Right. So, there's been an amateur archaeology team looking into the ruins of Cadburry castle, you know the old… iron fort hill."

"Iron hill fort." Lara corrected absentmindedly.

"Whatever," I waved off the detail. "The important part is, most likely due to their disregard for proper procedure or whatever, that they punched a hole through a wall in one of the lower cellars and stumbled across a previously undiscovered vault, or serious of vaults or something. Details are sketchy after that."

Lara blinked. "They punched through a _wall_?" She asked. I could tell she was caught between scandalized and intrigued.

I laughed. She was just so _aghast_. Like she hadn't punched through her fair share of walls back on Yamatai.

"Apparently, the whole thing started out as some big joke. Some trust fund baby, thought 'finding Camelot' would be a fun thing to do with his brand new Bachelors in Archaeology."

"And how did you figure that one out?" She asked.

"Social media," I said. "Facebook is everywhere. The guy was pretty proud of it actually."

I think I almost saw a smirk at that one. "That all sounds quite horrifying," Lara said "but there's nothing supernatural about idiots at uni."

"Why, Lara, I'm offended!"

She snorted. "If you want to call yourself an idiot, be my guest, Sam. Meanwhile I have yet to hear anything supernatural."

"Okay, okay," I said, smiling, "I'll get to the interesting part!"

"Has there been a string of unfortunate accidents?" Lara asked (drolly), "I don't suppose that forward progress has come to a grinding halt, or something else out of a B rate movie."

"The opposite, actually," I said. I rested my chin in my hand. "They've been making pretty absurd progress. The interesting part is that there seem to be a huge network of vaults and chambers beneath that hill."

Lara, of course, caught on right away. "That no one's ever found before." She said, before shrugging. "The last expedition to Cadbury was in the mid-nineties. Not exactly surprising."

"Yes, well, excuse me if the name Camelot was what drew my eye in the first place," I said. "But we're here anyway, right? Don't tell me you weren't going to come back to Surrey at _some_ point. So I thought we could check it out."

"Why this one," Lara asked. "There are dozens of similar 'discoveries' each year."

"They've been making a lot of big claims." I said. "Animated suits of armor, shifting corridors, etcetera. Of course, no one believes it but…" I shrugged. "It sounded fishy, or something. Call it a gut feeling."

Or at least, that's what it was after I'd actually sat down and looked into the situation. But hey, no point in telling Lara that I'd been running around like a headless chicken and picked England on a lark and a half-baked idea.

"Oh?" Lara gave me a knowing smirk.

I slumped. "Okay fine. It was a random guess. But _now_ it looks interesting."

"You had time to look into it?" Why did she look so surprised?

I sighed. "I had half a day, you know," I said. "I'm not completely useless at research. I had term papers too you know!"

With a smirk, Lara polished off the rest of my tea. "Of course."

I rolled my eyes. "So are you interested or not?"

"Well, it's certainly worth taking a look at," She said, drumming her fingers on the table. "The problem is just getting on sight… If they're as lackadaisical as you make them out to be, there shouldn't be too much security, but even so…"

I let her stew on that for a second before pulling my phone out of my pocket. "Oh that?" I asked nonchalantly. "Don't worry, I already got us an invite."

"I-what?"

This time I did snap a pic of her gobsmacked expression.

"Sam!"

"Sweetie, you're like, the most famous person in archaeology right now. You're responsible for the biggest find of Heian slash Kamakura period architecture in the past century of something." I gave her a look. "Did you really think you'd be able to keep your anonymity after the media storm we just weathered not even a month ago?"

Lara looked conflicted. "I thought," she paused. "Well, I had hoped that things would have… died down by now."

"Not a chance," I said. "Haven't you been watching the Japanese News?"

"I don't speak Japanese, Sam."

"Well _I_ do." And Portuguese as well, but that was less relevant. "And all of the major channels are still covering Yamatai. People over there are going crazy over the quality of architecture. Not to mention all the various 'artifacts'."

Lara chuckled. "Some of which were probably used to disembowel people within the last decade."

"I know right? But anyway," I waved my phone in her face again "you wanna meet the guy? Oh, and his team too I guess."

"Yes," Lara said. "And is there anything you know about his team? You haven't mentioned them yet."

"Well, not as such," I said, waving my hand. "But if the lead is any indication, they're probably just his college buddies with enough associated majors to pass muster."

Lara sighed. "I can hardly wait."

I patted her on the shoulder. "We can't _all_ have a team composed of card carrying bad asses, Sweetie."

"I know."

Left unsaid was that, this time, we hopefully wouldn't need them.

 **3.2  
**  
"No it's really, _really_ , excellent to have you here!" Alex Taylor said. No, I think 'said' was too soft a word. How about effused? "Quite Grand, Lady Croft. Really it's an honor." He still hadn't stopped shaking Lara's hand.

Lara, for her part, looked like she was two seconds away from ripping his arm off, or else just running away and blowing the whole meeting. Since that would be… pretty-bad-out-of-ten for our future plans (and also because I was annoyed at how much attention he was paying to Lara) I decided to cut in on his smooze fest.

"Look, Alex, is great that you're excited about this." I said, smiling "We actually do need to get a look through the site, you know? You already have _my_ vote, of course," Well, mostly "but Lara still needs to be convinced about the importance of this excavation."

This time it was the little lordling's turn to look aghast. "Oh my, of-of course" he said. "How foolish of me!" He gave a hearty chuckle. "Your pardon, Lady Croft, but I was just so excited to have you here, I just seem to have forgotten why I thought to invite you in the first place!" He shook his head. "Really, let's get right to it then! I'm sure your insights will prove invaluable to our research."

"I…" Lara started, before apparently thinking better of it. "Yes, of course. Let's take a look around." She paused for a moment, a flicker of seriousness stealing across her otherwise nonplused expression. "I would be interested in seeing those walking suits of armor you've been talking about."

Alex blinked at that, before seemingly reaching a conclusion. "There really was… more to Yamatai wasn't there?" He said, glancing at both of us. "I wasn't quite sure, just based on the scant news it could have been anything really, but…"

"Alex, I don't think-"

"Ah, yes of course," he said. "My apologies, Miss Nishimura, you two have hardly come here to relive bad memories." Lara and I both winced slightly at that. "In any case, you're the first to be open minded in the slightest about Sir Galahad."

"You think it's the legendary Galahad's armor?" Lara asked.

"Hmm? Oh no, probably not. Or maybe it's hard to tell," Alex said. "We named it that because the suit seems to capture the essence of knighthood."

I nodded in understanding. "Hence, the perfect knight."

It took a few steps to realize that neither of the Brits were still following me. I glanced over my shoulder to find Lara and Alex both staring at me with… were those confused expressions? I had to stifle a laugh

"Oh, honey, you didn't think I was _just_ a pretty face now did you?"

"Yes, well," Alex managed to cough out. "It was-"

"Sorry, Sam, you just surprised us." Lara's recover was much more admirable. "I guess those old English literature classes are finally paying dividends?"

I sighed dramatically. "Yes, though I'm still not sure how you talked me into them." Lara laughed.

"Let's continue then, Alex?"

"Ah, yes, right," He said. "This way please."

"So what about 'Galahad' makes it the perfect knight?" I asked.

Alex hmmed. "Well, it's not so much any one thing." He started. "But I personally think it mainly lies in the cut of the armor. It's archaic without being _old_ , or something to that effect. Really, the most interesting aspect is just how good condition it's remained in."

"None of the typical signs of decay?"

"Not a one," Alex told Lara.

"And when you call it a moving suit of armor," I said "What do you mean exactly."

Alex laughed sheepishly at that. "Ah, well, nothing so grand as an actual walking suit of Armor you know. It just… ends up in different places each day." He shrugged. "I'm still half convinced that one of my mates is moving it around, except that everyone checks out each night and there's a security team at the entrance…"

I nodded, pondering the worn, roughly hewn stone beneath my feet. The passage we'd been walking in had passed by a few vaulted rooms, and though I was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic with all the dirt overhead, this certainly didn't look like a place someone could sneak into.

"Have you tried cameras?" Lara asked.

"Oi," A new voice interrupted, "hasn't Alex told ye yet? Camera's don't work a lick down here. It's a bloody miracle we got the lighting up at all it is!"

"Oh?" I peered around the next corner, "who's this fellow?" Fellow? I brushed it off. All the british must be getting to me.

"This is Thomas. My technician." Alex told us, some of that earlier giddiness was seeping back into his voice. "See Tom! I told you Lady Croft would be coming round the site. And this is her agent, Sam."

"Well, I guess I see now why ye wanted the place all tidied up a touch." Tom said, he shot us a knowing grin.

Lara and I shared a glance.

"Uni?"

I nodded. "Uni."

Tom just laughed, though I think Alex looked a little miffed for a second before brushing it off.

"But yes," He continued when Tom finally quieted down, "Tom's one of the most integral members of the team. Without him we'd be examining this place with oil lanterns and match sticks."

"Something to do with the camera's not working?" I asked. As Alex nodded I started fishing around in my bag.

"We don't really know why, but electronics in general don't seem to function well beneath the ruins of Cadbury," he said. "More delicate items tend to shut down entirely. It's a bit of a pain in the arse to be completely honest."

I laughed. "C'mon, Alex, you were doing such a good job of sounding professional in front of your idol!"

He paused. "Yes- well,"

"Oh come off it" Tom groused. "Pain in the bloody arse is the best way ta put it. I swear that this place has it out for me. Can't string a cable without sommat ripping or giving out!"

"Tom's studying electrical engineering," Alex said by way of explanation.

I glanced over to where Lara was kneeling on the ground. "That explains the heavy duty lines," she said quietly. "More robust material has a better chance of lasting?"

"Has a chance of functioning at all, more like. Anything with a motherboard is done for, can hardly even keep a torch running in this pit."

"Really?" I murmured. "Mine's working just fine…" I flicked through the options on my brand new C300. The thing was marketed as an indestructible fortress of camera-ness, so I wasn't exactly surprised by that.

But according to these two nothing else had ever worked down here. How odd…

I almost missed the glance that Tom and Alex shared. "What do you make of that then?" Alex asked his friend.

Tom shrugged. "Didn't you buy one a those models just a week ago? I don't see why this one 'd be different in the slightest."

"Well, it won't be the first mystery of this place to be unsolved," Alex said. "Shall we continue the tour? We've cleared out five vaults so far, with a tangle of passageways in between. I'd like to show you at least the most important ones before we have to get to work again."

"Just a moment," Lara said. "Sam, could you hand me that?" She gestured to my camera.

"Sure?" I passed it to her. The moment I let go of it the screen started to flicker, lines of static that quickly started to multiply. The screen cut out after less than a second.

Then she handed it back to me. I looked at her, but she only gestured towards the C300.

Dutifully, I turned it back on. And it was fine.

"Well I'll be damned…" Tom muttered "looks like your lady friend has the magic fingers aye?"

"Mr. Taylor," Lara said "I think that Sam and I would be delighted to join your expedition, if you'll have us." She finally looked away from the camera, taking in the narrow passageways around us that had laid undisturbed for a millennium. "I think you've stumbled across quite a find."

Alex Taylor said nothing. He just continued gazing at the camera with something like awe writ plain on his features.

 **3.3**

"So this is the fabled 'Sir Galahad' " I mused.

The suit of armor actually was pretty impressive, without a single fleck of rust to be seen. The thing had to cap out at six five at least, with pauldrons that would make professional linebackers seem skinny.

Really, whoever this suit of armor was made for must have been a giant. Weren't people back then supposed to have been really short or something?

"Fascinating," Lara murmured.

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Mr. Spock."

Alex chuckled. "We're not quite sure what he's made of, but," he gestured to the longsword it held, which was very much not unravished by the sands of time "it's clearly not normal iron or steel."

"And what haven't you taken a sample for testing?" Lara asked.

"Well," Alex started. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him blush slightly "we can't really bring in any power tools, or even a camera to show this find to a specialist. And as of yet no one else has taken this find all that seriously, most people think we've stumbled across an old root cellar…"

Lara nodded. "I can see how the lack of pictures would make things difficult like that. What do you think Sam?"

"I can probably take a few," I said. "Should be enough to get things moving along right? Still, it's a bit awkward."

"Hmm?" Lara glanced over at me.

"I'm gonna be the only one who can use a Camera down here, or at least that's what it looks like," I said. " _Pretty_ sure that most people will just think we're fabricating evidence."

"Bloody typical," Alex grumbled. "No, you're probably right. Still, it's a far sight better than anything we had previously, if you would do the honors Miss?"

I shared a glance with Lara, and she nodded. "Alright," I said, pulling out my camera again "Here goes nothing."

I focused on the suit of armor and turned on the flash.

 _Swish-click_

And, just going by Alex and Lara's facial expressions, I wasn't the only one who was vaguely disappointed when nothing else happened.

"Well that was…" Lara began, "surprisingly painless."

I looked at my camera, the picture came out fine, even if the suit of armor was in pretty start relief due to the wonky lighting. "That'll be that then," I said, snapping a few more just for insurance. "I'll send you the pictures on facebook after I upload them."

"It's a start," He said, though I think his was undermining his normal British reserve. "Would you mind taking pictures of the rest of the site as well? Hopefully we can start making up for nearly a month without verification."

"Sounds like you have your work cut out for you."

"Please," he shot back, "if I'd wanted an easy job I'd be at Father's company."

I gave him a knowing smile. "Isn't breaking with generations of tradition just the best?"

"Oh, absolutely."

You know, I think I was starting to like this Alex guy. Didn't hurt that he was pretty cute in that trust fund baby kinda way. But I've always had a soft spot for the guys who could afford all the best toys.

"If we could take a look at the rest of the site now?" Lara cut in.

I glanced over at her in surprise; she'd sounded a bit peevish there. But for some reason she was already looking down the next hallway.

"Ah yes, of course." Alex took the lead once again. "There are only two more rooms that we've opened up thus far," He said. "Most of the chambers themselves seem to be in rather good condition, I've seen several examples of what I've started to think of as proto ribbed vaults which seem to be holding up well enough."

"Really?" Lara asked, "But this stonework is so roughly hewn. There's no way that this place was built with gothic architecture of all things."

Alex laughed. "That's what the rest of the world keeps saying as well!" He said. "But I know what I've seen, and even then, it's just remarkable that this whole complex hasn't collapsed ages ago."

I noticed that Lara paid quite a bit more attention to the ceiling after that. "The corridors are a bit different… but they seem to follow the same structure of a roman arch."

"Which is why they were much more prone to collapse. My team has been reinforcing them at key junctures but it can still be a bit touch and go at times."

Finally we got to the next room. The ceiling didn't seem all the special to me, but the way Lara's jaw dropped told a different story. "Absolutely incredible," she whispered.

"Exactly!" Alex said, gesturing to the stone. "Don't you see! _This_ is why I'm so sure that this is the location of Camelot. I can't imagine how the Anglo-Saxons discovered these techniques-"

"But even still this type of architecture is _centuries_ ahead of its time," Lara finished. "Yes the stonework is much less precise, but that only indicates that these blocks were shaped using Iron Age tools."

"And that just makes this even more of a technological wonder than it already is."

Lara nodded. "How deep are we?" She asked.

"A few meters beneath the topsoil," Alex said. "Low enough that no expedition here had ever dug until hitting these ceilings."

"And that's _after_ god knows how many years of erosion,' Lara murmured. "How did they ever move so much earth so as to construct these cellars in the first place?"

"Maybe they just dug it out and put the stone in afterwards?" I said, shrugging.

Alex sighed. "That's been our best guess as well. Though that wouldn't explain why anyone saw the need to make an underground _cathedral*_ of all things."

"It boggles the mind."

Given that the two of them were so caught up in this architecture stuff, I decided it would be a good idea to take a few pictures. The two of them were still going over all the various features a few minutes later, but I made sure to take a few shots of anything that they pointed out.

It took another hour or so to get enough pictures for Alex (and even more so _Lara_ ) to be satisfied. She was really diving into this expedition feet first.

It was a bit strange, being on the periphery after all this time, but still it was nice to see her so animated. The past few weeks had been an emotional roller coaster for us in the worst of ways. It was nice to see her evening out again.

"The rest of my team will be here again tomorrow," Alex told us as we were walking back towards the surface. "I gave them the day off, since we'd finally finished going over the last few vaults we'd gotten access to."

Lara nodded, "Where are we going to look next?"

"Well, that mainly depends on whether Sir Galahad moves tonight or not," He said. "For the last two days he's been standing in the same spot. It's actually a partially collapsed passageway behind him, though it looks like an alcove at first glance. We can't get any braces of lift gear into position with it in the way."

Lara nodded, before frowning. "What are the lot of you even using to clear the passageways? I understand supports not being a problem but have you managed to get a mechanical winch working?"

"Nothing so straightforward," Alex said with a wry smile. "It's been a bit of a slog, honestly, but so far we've gotten by with pulleys, car jacks, and moxie."

"Gotta love those complex machines…" I murmured.

"That would explain all the debris," Lara agreed.

"Oh god I can't even imagine the amount of work it would take to move all that stone to the surface," Alex said. "Hopefully that won't be necessary… but if there's a collapse we'll be forced to deal with it regardless."

"Maybe we can see if my magic touch extends to gas engines or something?"

Lara laughed, "Something like that would be a pretty bad idea down here."

"Indeed," Alex said. "The carbon monoxide build up could be hard to deal with. So far we haven't had any trouble, I suspect some air vents have been cut through in some of the deeper rooms, but there's no point in overtaxing what must be a fairly simplistic system." Lara only nodded in agreement.

I looked back down the long passageway as we stepped back out onto the hillside. "And by now you're probably too deep to put an engine out here and just run a chain all the way down."

"Exactly."

Lara looks over the entrance to the site in silence for a few moments, even as the security team eyes us openly. "Yes," she says. "I think it will be a pleasure working with you, Mister Taylor."

Christ, his answering grin was almost blinding. Turn down the hero worship a notch would yah!

"It is an honor, Lady Croft."

We ended up parting ways there, and Lara had a small smile on her face all the way back to our hotel.

Yeah, it was super great, to see her this… happy.

"So what do you think?" I finally asked as I pulled into a parking spot. It was a bit of a drive, since our hotel was in 'London proper' but we'd probably find someplace to stay closer to Cadbury castle tomorrow.

"It's definitely something," Lara said. "You really outdid yourself, Sam."

I smirked. "Well, naturally."

"What do you think about the interference?" She asked, pointing at my camera bag.

"Hmmm." We got out of the car.

It was an interesting question, not the least of which because it required me to dive into Himiko's gifted knowledge of the supernatural. She had very little experience with occidental systems, but maybe…

"If I had to guess, it would probably be because I'm disrupting whatever is going on there, if it's magic that is," I said. "I have a pretty strong spiritual signature, so if the working was delicate, or if it's faded over the years, my presence would be enough to destabilize a part of it." I shrugged. "If I'm on site long enough the whole thing might unravel, though really I have no idea if that'll actually be the case."

The elevator door closed and I hit the button for our floor.

"…Sam."

I glanced over at Lara, blinking at her tone of voice before I caught sight of her poleaxed expression.

That was when I realized what I'd just said.

"Ah, shit…" I muttered. "Um, I promise I'll explain, this is a recent development I swear?" Lara nodded. "Just, please no guns this time?"

There was a minute pause, and then Lara nodded again.

I sighed. "I have the feeling we're gonna need some schnapps to make it through this one boys," I murmured to myself. But really, how could I have expected this to have gone any different?

Hopefully she wouldn't try and shoot me this time?

 **3.4**  
Lara looked at me silently for a few seconds after I finished my explanation, slowly blinking a few times.

"And you're sure that she's gone this time?" she asked, finally.

I sighed. "Pretty sure," I said. "Not that I can think of an easy way to prove this, or anything. Not to mention I'd really prefer we don't set 'interrogation at gunpoint' as our go to litmus test for these types of things."

"Tell me about the first time we met," Lara said.

"Oh, Sweetie," I said, shaking my head, "If Himiko was able to mimic my mannerisms for this long it goes without saying that she must have my memories as well."

"Hence, me asking for one that she'd consider unimportant."

"She actually had a pretty high opinion of you," I said quietly. "Not that I got a comprehensive look at her naughty list or anything. But I'm pretty sure that she found you more impressive than anyone else who's set foot on that island for centuries," I gave a wry smile at that. "myself included."

"Sam," Lara said, pinching her nose, "just answer the question."

"You were sitting in the shade of those awful pillars with this huge honking archaeology text book," I told her, rolling my eyes. "And I thought to myself 'no girl that cute should be wasting her last day of freedom'. Plus, I needed another extra for my film project. So I went over and dragged you into it."

Lara smiled slightly.

"Now," I said, "if I knew that you could shoot the wings off a fly with any weapon at hand, maybe I would have been a bit more circumspect, but I didn't."

"And the rest is history," Lara finished.

I shrugged, "Yeah basically."

"What were you wearing?"

"I—" I blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"

"What were you wearing that day?" Lara asked again.

I almost had to gape at her. "What I was _wearing_?" I asked, but she only nodded in response. I snorted. "Well if I could remember stuff like that I have had a much easier time on my finals…"

Lara cocked an eyebrow.

I shrugged again, "Clothes?" I guessed, "Generally speaking a pair of tight jeans and a cute top, because that's basically all that I wore freshman year?" Still nothing. I wilted, but Lara's face might as well have been made of stone. " _Laraaa_! How on earth can you expect me to remember this stuff?!"

She crossed her arms. "Fine, what was I wearing then?"

"A tank and a pair of cargo pants, duh?" It been a really baggy example of both as well. Like, I'd never seen a beautiful girl disavow her assets so thoroughly, not that I'd said so aloud at the time. "I remember thinking it was weird how you weren't wearing a jacket because it was super cold that day."

"And yet," Lara mused, "You can't remember what you were wearing?"

Oh. Um.

Yeah that… would seem pretty weird… "Um… yes?" I tried. No matter how much I wracked my brain I couldn't remember what particular ensemble I'd put together that day. It had just been another day! I mean, I'm sure I had dressed nice, but I always did that!

I felt myself scrunching in on myself as Lara continued to stare. Finally, I couldn't keep eye contact any longer, and looked away.

Was I hyperventilating right now? I'm pretty sure I was hyperventilating.

"You're sure you don't remember?" Lara pressed, voice hard.

I chocked back a sob. "Yes."

There was a chuckle. "That's my girl," Lara said quietly.

Then she hugged me.

"Sam," she murmured into the fabric of my shirt as I stared uncomprehendingly at her, "you need to stop doing these things to me. I don't like doing this either."

"I… I'm sorry?"

Lara sighed, pulling back slightly. "I feel like I've been saying this a lot, but I had to know."

I shrugged, though the movement was kinda stifled by Lara's hug. "At least it was less… physically damaging this time?" I asked. "But, um, I'm still not seeing what just happened there."

"There really were only two scenarios that made sense," Lara said, "given the context."

I blinked once, before I made the connection. "Either I was me, with all of _Himiko's_ memories…"

"Or you were Himiko, with Sam's," Lara agreed. "So I asked a question with that in mind. If you remembered the clothing you were wearing that day, or rather, if you had an immediate answer, you would have obviously been Himiko."

"Is that a jab at me having too many clothes?" I griped.

"Quiet you."

"But there's more to it, right? I get a feeling that this is gonna be a bit overthought in the end, isn't it…"

"Hmmm. Well," Lara started, "there was also a chance that Himiko might have realized that ploy, or else just not remembered and decided to fake a fear response."

Fear response? I even started to say something, but Lara was already moving on.

"That's why I slipped the question about my outfit in there."

"Because if Himiko was deciding to 'fake it', or had seen through you… she wouldn't have switched back half way?"

"Exactly."

I shook my head. "But, Sweetie, what if I didn't remember?"

Lara laughed. "Do you remember how many times you've taken me to task for my fashion choice?"

"Um…" I blinked, "Isn't that just what friends do? It's called fashion advice for a reason?"

"And," Lara said, in that tone of voice that let me know some triumphant conclusion was just around the corner, "since that's the way you remember those times, there's no way that Himiko would have ever seen through my ploy."

I thought about it for a moment, before groaning. "I was right, you really did over think it."

"Aren't you the one who said you wanted a different form of litmus test?" Lara teased, "I was sure that you'd appreciate the amount of thought I put into it."

"I am only vaguely mollified that you didn't pull the g-gun on me again," I manage after a moment. "But… ugh. Lara why is this always so _exhausting_?"

 **3.5**  
To the surprise of no one, Lara and I made our way back to the site the next morning.

I was starting to get tired of British tea. Now I've never been the most avid of tea drinkers, but in my personal opinion all the coffee in the United Kingdom was shit. So I wasn't really spoiled for options or anything.

What's worse, something that you can stand but don't particularly like? Or something that is a betrayal of everything in the world that you love (not including your best friend and cute clothes ofc).

That one got away from me a bit.

Point being, I was drinking tea because I was an unrepentant caffeine addict and it was better than the coffee. This morning, however, I woke up with a craving for some green tea and was sorely disappointed when I had to settle for earl grey once more.

Maybe I'd start letting Lara pick, if, you know, she drank the stuff at all. C'mon girl, you need to represent your culture.

"I think I'm doing a fine enough job of that without the tea, thank you." Lara said.

Wait, did I say that last bit out loud?

"Yes."

And apparently, I was still doing it…

Lara cocked an eyebrow. "Yes… Should I be worried that you've basically started to orate our adventures?"

I chuckled sheepishly. "Just a temporary lapse in concentration, I swear," I said. "We were up late last night you know," I murmured suggestively. Lara just rolled her eyes.

"We're here," she said, pulling into a parking spot. I would have driven but, you know, the roads are all backwards. Fortunately, Lara remembered how to drive here, or else had good enough reaction times to fake it.

Could be either really. I'm not sure how her license wasn't expired, something to do with being nobility?

I mentally shrugged. Mentally.

"Let's get to work then," I said as I pulled my camera bag out of the back seat. "So what do you think about the moving suit of armor?"

"Hopefully nothing more than a particularly well thought out prank," Lara said. "But best be on our toes."

I smiled. Sure that's what _she_ was hoping for.

You'd think that I'd be leery about this turning into _Magical Fortress 2: Electric Boogaloo_ , and really, I was. But that was just drowned out by the growing sense of _excitement._

There was a reason I'd decided to back Lara's first expedition after all. In my own way, I was just as much of an adventure nut and adrenaline junkie as my best friend, even if I usually preferred to be on the other side of the screen.

Though that might be changing now.

It wasn't everyday a girl got storm powers and an encyclopedia of magical knowledge to go with them. A part of me (a pretty large, X-men reading part of me) wanted to test them out. I wanted to show off.

And if push came to shove there was a lot of reassurance in that I could just call down a bolt of lightning on the next mummy bent on taking over my body. Call it the world's biggest security blanket.

"Sam," Lara said, "Sam, no."

"Hmm? What?"

"I know what you're thinking," she said, "and it's not worth it."

"Oh?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. I picked up my pace, moving ahead of her as we descended into the vaults "What's wrong with a little adventure now and again?"

"I swear to god, Sam, if this all goes pear shaped-"

I gave her a wry smile. "Don't worry," I said, "I promise that I won't get kidnapped this time. I even brought the Condom." I patted the right side of my jacket.

Lara slumped, before turning her gaze skyward with a much put upon expression.

Oh c'mon, Sweetie, I know you don't like my gun's nickname, but do you really think you're gonna get any sympathy from _my_ clouds?

Plus, that name was damn perfect okay? Came straight from my favorite line out of AVP (and in my opinion the _only_ good line out of that movie). Better to have it and not need it, after all!

"What did I do to deserve this?" She asked no one.

I patted her on the shoulder. "Sometimes, we're punished for the actions of others, Sweetie." She shot a glare at me.

I set up my camera gear, and started taking more pictures.

Alex showed up a bit later, telling us that the rest of the team would show up in about an hour. There was a bit of finagling going on with the generator in the background, but since I couldn't really stand next to it for the entire rest of the dig I just ignored it.

At one point Alex and Lara started pointing out specific things they wanted captured in more detail. Lara mainly for the sake of completion I felt, but it seemed like Alex was hoping to bring the photos to some experts.

"How'd the last ones I sent you turn out?" I asked him.

"Mostly good," he said. "There were some blurry bits of course, but for the most part very professional. I'm hoping that we can get the same quality of pictures over the rest of the site."

I hummed. "Just out of curiosity," I started, snapping another picture, "what happened when you guys tried some old fashioned mechanical cameras?"

"They-" Alex paused.

I paused.

 _Lara_ paused.

"You didn't try any, did you?" I asked.

"Uh, no. We didn't…"

"You didn't try mechanical cameras?" I repeated.

He chuckled sheepishly. "Ah, well, nobody thought of it?" He said. "We were all simply… focused on just getting the lighting to work as is. Camera's fell by the wayside, I suppose."

I rolled my eyes, amateurs. "Well it's pretty moot at this point," I said, snapping another picture. "Not like we have an army of photographers, and still no video unless you want to try and dig up a _handcrank_ camera."

"But would finding a mechanical one be so much easier?" Alex asked.

"Oh, loads," I said. "Any film department worth its name'll have at least a dozen brick toting purists who'll insist that the old fashioned way is better." I chuckled. Indexicality was their only remaining argument, and it was a bad one. "Hand-crank cinema on the other hand?" I shook my head "Good luck. I mean sure, we've almost reached the point where it's artistic Avant Garde to use subpar and outdated techniques. But finding someone with a functional rig, who's willing to let a bunch of archeologists use it? Fat chance."

"Film major," I heard Lara whisper.

"Yes well," Alex mused, "I should like to get a mechanical camera at least. Even if it serves no other practical purpose, it will be interesting to see if that type of device works."

I frowned, biting my lip.

Up until this point I hadn't spent more than a few moments thinking about the working that lay on Cadbury. Fear that your best friend will shoot you (again) will do that, right? But still it was something to think about.

"I agree," I said. "If nothing else it might help us pin down what oddness is going on down here. It certainly doesn't make much sense so far." I left the thought of magic alone for the time being, as did both the Archeologists.

Lara, I think, because she was still hoping there was some benign explanation.

"In any case, it will be nice to be making some sort of progress again," Alex said, taking a glance at a pocket watch. "Of course, I can't text down here, but just going by the time the rest of the team should be arriving shortly."

"Thank god for heirlooms, right?" I asked, nudging Lara in the side.

"Indeed." Alex smiled wanly. "This belonged to my grandfather, I never thought I'd take it out of its box, much less that I'd be winding the watch spring every morning!"

I smirked.

All jokes aside though, I really wish I could make sense of whatever was going on here.

That ambient magic was enough to disrupt delicate technology made sense in and of itself. 'Magic' was a catchall term in the same way that 'Science' was, and contained about as many high-energy emissions, so no surprise there.

What confused me was how, for some reason, anything that I was holding functioned fine. And I do mean anything, we even managed to get some additional 'testing' in on that front. Watches, flashlights (oh, I'm sorry, 'torches'), etcetera. If it was on my person it worked fine, give it to someone else and it shorts out.

The only think I could think up off the top of my head was domains. But… I was hesitant to call it that.

No point in jumping right to three-dimensional integration when good old fashion geometry will do, or something like that. Domains were… intense.

Leaving that problem aside, Lara and I did get to meet the rest of Alex's team. Namely Colleen and Pierce. Colleen was an anthropologist from Southern Ireland, blond and peppy. Pierce on the other hand aspired to become a historian with a focus on Great Britain, or as he called it 'the most interesting pair of islands in the world'.

Now, I'm sure Himiko would have taken exception to that, (I certainly thought Yamatai deserved one of those spots) but I let him keep his Eurocentric worldview.

"Well it's great to meet everyone," I said, once introductions were complete. "Are we finished with pictures too or is there anything else you want me to get?"

Alex shook his head. "I think we've fairly well cased the whole thing by now," he said. "If you would just send the pictures to me?"

"The moment after I've finished saving them to my laptop." I'd probably upload them to my server as well. Never hurts to have some extra insurance. "Are we ready to move on? Has Sir Galahad unbarred the way?"

"He has, actually," Lara said as she came out of the nearest passageway. "We are ready to progress." I cocked an eyebrow at her. Anyone with eyes could see that she was more than a bit nervous, but she just shook her head.

"Excellent news," Alex said, brushing some dust off his pressed cargo pants.

"Ah, it'll be good to get moving forward again," Colleen said in her musical lilt. Everyone here had a pretty accent except for me… "Shall I start laying down the wires?"

"Just a mo, Colleen," Alex said. "I think we're going to try torches again. If you would Miss Samantha?"

Tom handed me one of those heavy-duty flashlights. You know, the kind that FEMA uses in disaster zones. I clicked it on.

The lightbulb flickered once, gaining some strength before sputtering out again.

I frowned at it. "Well, that's something," I said, before looking back at the rest of our party. "Shall we get to those power cables then?"

Yep. This was looking more and more like Domains.

Despite that, setting up was relatively quick and painless. Tom had brought the extra cables on the chance that I couldn't work my magic (snerk) on the flashlight. Granted, he bitched about the extra work for the whole time, but I figured that things like that were just par for the course for him.

"This is most of the reason that we've moved through so little of the ruins," Alex told Lara as he picked up a box of lightbulbs and sockets. "We have to light each room before moving on. It's a slog."

Lara smiled wanly. "I can see that. You'll forgive me if I keep my hands free I hope?"

"Scared of the dark, Lady Croft?" He joked, smirking.

"Of course not," she said. "Merely the monsters that it might hold."

And on that happy note, we started into the yet unexplored section of the ruins, spooling wire behind us.

As the last one through the opening, I patted the suit of armor on the shoulder. "Hold the door, Sir Knight?"

I was about to duck under the collapsed lintel when I heard a rattle of metal.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the suit of armor had not moved an inch.

Maybe it had just been my imagination.

Yeah right.I sighed and turned back towards the passageway. "I'll take that as a yes, I supposed."

A/N: Not much to say this time. Sorry that it took me a while to cross post this, it's been finished on Space Battles for a while now but I didn't get around to it until now. Finals and all of that.

In better news, I have found a Beta Reader. He's looked at all the sections from 3.4 onwards. So everything beyond that point should be much cleaner and Typo free. Despite a brief Hiatus I have started work on chapter 4 and since I'm on break from Uni things should move a bit more quickly. That said I do have a few other stories that I'm working on simultaneously.

Finally, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Don't forget to leave a review!


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